The Doomsday Vault
by The Subwave Network
Summary: When Sarah travels to a remote scientific base, she is faced with a familiar enemy. First part in a series of stories in which Sarah and the Fourth Doctor are reunited through some timey-wimeyness. Eleven & Sarah at the start, but Four/Sarah in the near future. Rated K for the time being, but that's likely to change.
1. Chapter 1

**Note:**

_There is an actual 'vault' in Norway with the same function as the one in this story. No similarities otherwise of course ;) At least I hope not._

_My very first piece of fanfic. Please don't be afraid to criticize. Love all feedback._

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Sarah Jane Smith awoke to the sound of a familiar voice and the smell of freshly baked muffins.

'Smith, this is unacceptable,' he fretted. 'These housecalls are rare gems, you don't just sleep through them!'

She reluctantly opened her eyes to the odd yet pleasant picture of the Doctor sitting cross-legged on her attic floor, his back straightened perfectly while his hands hung limply over his knees. A dainty tray with newly baked treats, a pot of tea, and two cups sat next to him. The scene looked so very wrong in sight of all that had happened during the last two days. That was him. From catastrophe to pastry before you could say Jack Robinson. The pleasant smell emanating from the tray wasn't enough to take her mind off the pain however, as every sore bone in her body felt as though it was about to spontaneously catch fire.

'My legs,' she whimpered.

She was convinced someone had been operating on her head with a kango drill as she slowly rose from the pillow. Stirring around in her brain with a rusty spoon perhaps. Stapling post-it notes to the inside of her skull.

'Oh,' she cried as the sunlight seeping through the window stabbed her eyes to the verge of tears.

'Good morning, Sarah Jane,' Mr. Smith greeted her in his usual deadpan manner.

'How did I get here?' she groaned while throwing the Doctor's tweed jacket from her shoulders. She swung her legs over the side of the crimson leather sofa and ran her fingers through her tousled hair in silence. Suddenly she remembered...

'Where is he? Where are...'

She shot up in a sudden panic and headed straight for the door.

'Sit down, Smith. I'll tell you everything, but you have to...'

'Where are Luke and Sky?' she interrupted.

A rush of pain spread throughout to her head once more as as she turned around to face him. As the room started spinning, she was convinced she'd hit the ground like a brick.

'Please, sit down,' he solemnly requested. 'I ran a medical in the Tardis on our way here. You're not concussed, thankfully, but you have to take it slow.'

He calmly gestured towards the couch and poured her a cup of tea.

'You got off lightly, Smith. Very lightly.'

'What about _him_?' she asked with evident caution. 'Is he alright? You didn't leave him, did you?'

He put down the teapot and pushed an oversized piece of cake into his mouth, ignoring her question.

'One sugar, no milk, still?' he managed to ask while struggling with the sweet pastry that had endeared itself to the roof of his mouth so passionately it refused to be pried loose by his tongue. He quickly gave up on the task and resembled a hamster as he gazed up at her, expecting a reply.

She nodded in silence as she returned to the couch.

'The kids and K9 are running some errands for me. I made them a list while I was baking.

'Muffin, Cake, French Fancy?'

He gestured at his creations proudly while adjusting his bowtie.

'Doctor, please,' she begged.

'Of course I didn't leave him, Smith. Contrary to what some of you may believe, I am interested in the self preservational minimum. Leaving him would imply abandoning my current self as well.'

With a weary sigh, Sarah eased herself back against a pillow and waited for the drowsiness to subside. Try as she may, she couldn't supress a few tears from trickling down her cheeks as soon as she recalled everything that had happened during the previous days.

The events had unfolded like a dream. Only now, in the safety and warmth of her own home, did she come to realise the severity and potential consequences of what had happened. What she had done. What _they_ had done. She had no idea how she was going to have to explain herself. Not to mention, him. In helping her, he had broken one of his primary rules. Lord knows what the consequences would be on his part.

**Two Days Earlier**

For most of the uneventful journey to Lapland, Sarah's mind had barricaded itself from the present.

Having failed several times to focus her thoughts on the very reason she was hovering more than twenty thousand miles above sea level in a charter plane, she had now simply given up. The research file in front of her hadn't been opened since leaving Bannerman Road, and had served mostly as a placemat for random junk from her bag.

It wasn't like her at all. Here she was, Sarah Jane Smith, one of the top journalists in the country, being invited to one of the most remote and secretive scientific undertakings on the planet, and all she could think about was home.

While her fellow passengers had been busy working and getting better acquainted, she had quietly sat by the window doing absolutely nothing.

One of them, a rather tall fortysomething bright blue-eyed man by the name of Mark Turner, had gently asked her whether she was nervous about flying about fifteen minutes after the plane taken off. She had been touched by his genuine concern, and had smiled graciously while shaking her head.

'Quite used to flying. Just a little homesick.'

Despite her politeness, he had still been attentive and tactful enough to notice she wasn't in the mood to have her brain picked, and she immediately liked him for it. He had a playful and slightly absentminded demeanor, yet was quietly confident and thoughtful enough to notice these little things upon their initial introduction.

'Well, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to talk during the next two days. I'll just allow you to think comforting thoughts about your family. I'll be right there if you need me though.'

He had left with an infectious smile and no hard feelings whatsoever.

She glanced over to his seat where he now sat typing away on his laptop, occasionally running a hand through his auburn curly hair.

'How much you remind me of him,' she murmured louder than anticipated. She immediately kicked herself internally while attempting to deny that daydream any further access into her mind.

Even though thoughts of _him_ had grown further and fewer in between with each passing year since their reunion, _he _was always there in the back of her mind.

_Her_ Doctor. An eternal grin plastered on his face. Waving to her as he stood atop a rock on Black Tortoise Beach on Shojo. A planet almost exactly like earth in its physical characteristics. The Shojons had no countries. They worshipped no deities except the ground beneath their feet and the sun that shone upon it. Their scientific knowledge and technological ingenuity was staggering, yet paled in comparison to their concern for the well-being of their planet as well as everything living upon its beautiful surface.

She knew why he could let his guard down there. It was a place where logic and morality thrived, and as a consequence, rendered violence and destruction all but obsolete. On Shojo, knowledge was viewed as a friend and protector, not something to boast about or be intimidated by. Those who had it wore it lightly and were always willing to share it.

They were kind, tender, and silly. Like him. Part of her had always wondered whether or not he had brought her there to show her how badly humankind had messed up its own path in comparison to the Shojons, who had been dealt the exact same hand to create their own destiny. She knew then and there, as she watched him smiling, more at peace than she had ever seen him, that she had never been happier. That was how she would aways remember him. _Her _Doctor.

She had no right to make such claims of course. After all, the Doctor belonged to no one, man or woman.

She had struggled with the feeling for years, and as she grew older, she admitted it went hand in hand with a regret she knew she had little right to carry. He was safe the last time she had seen him. As safe as the Doctor was ever going to be of course. It should have been enough.

Still, it was a feeling of selfish anger rather than gratitude which overtook her on rare occasions such these, when she was confronted by an unexpected tsunami of nostalgia.

She had to fight any feelings of self-pity when considering that the only man she had ever harboured any genuine and pure feelings for, had been a mere link in the long chain that makes up a Timelord's life. An echo of the past, buried somewhere inside of the man he was now. He was there, yes. Yet perhaps, he wasn't. Perhaps her human mind was too set on appearance and nugatory personality differences. Still, how could she not see them all as different men? If they had been human and forced to live together, no doubt they would have ended up driving one another bonkers. Yes, she missed _her_ Doctor.

'Too little too late, eh?' a voice remarked in her right ear. Reluctantly, Sarah turned to face whoever was trying to get her attention.

'Sorry?' she asked. For a moment she wasn't sure whether or not the person next to her had telepathic abilities and had been reading her mind.

'Marianne Holden,' the blonde woman replied while enthusiastically extending her hand towards hers.

'Sarah Jane Smith, how do you do?' she replied while shaking the woman's hand.

'It's my first real job since finishing my Phd. I hadn't anticipated being this nervous. Silly really. Especially when considering the smoke and mirrors surrounding this thing.'

'You're set to relieve one of the biologists in the Vault, aren't you?' Sarah interjected. She had remembered the name from the information folder but had expected someone older. Marianne Holden had quite an extensive and frankly mind blowing resumé. The fact that it had all been achieved by such a young woman immediately inspired great respect.

The blonde woman nodded. 'That's me.'

''Well, I'm sure you'll do just fine, Dr. Holden. I'm the one who's really out of her element, I'm just a journalist, not a scientist like you lot. Feeling a bit like an intruder,' Sarah informed the young woman in a secretive manner.

The statement wasn't entirely truthful of course. She had spent most of her life intruding. Luckily she had always been able to convince herself it was for the greater good, and that her reasons for doing so were always justified.

'That's funny, you're the second person to tell me that very thing today,' Marianne replied. 'So you and Mark know each other then?'

Marianne nodded towards Turner, who by now was peacefully dozing off in his seat, his head cocked to one side. Again, Sarah had to fight the urge to be reminded of someone else when looking at him.

'We've never met prior to today, why?' Sarah enquired with genuine curiosity.

'Oh, I thought since you're both journalists you might have been working together on a piece.'

'No, I had no idea,' Sarah replied absentmindedly as she glanced over at Mark's sleeping form.

She would have been lying had she told herself she wasn't more than a little bit intrigued by him. her first guess had been that he too was one of the biologists on the team. She was pretty well aware of notable people in her profession but had never even heard of him. No one had bothered to tell her she wouldn't be the only journalist aboard either. Yet here he was, in the same plane, en route to a destination reserved only for a selected few.

A look inside The Global Biota Repository, cynically nicknamed 'The Doomsday Vault', had been every reporter's wet dream for months.

The facility was a privately funded undertaking, the construction of which had already reached completion before the scientific community and the rest of the world would find out about its existence. The objective was to eventually maintain two underground storage facilities. One for all plantlife, the other for animal life. An insurance ticket in case a global catastrophe were to wipe out the majority of life on earth. For the time being though, only one of the two was fully operational.

She had deemed it a noble objective when first hearing the news, but in no rush to visit by any means. A trip to a remote greenhouse simply wasn't a high priority on her things-to-do list.

As of late, she had noticed her ever decreasing interest in the work she once held so dear and, for years, had defined herself by. As she grew older, the years seemed to slip by at an alarming speed, and she was determined to enjoy them. Her do-it-yourself rescue plan for earth would continue as long as her body and mind tolerated it. Her job however, now that was another matter. She at least wanted to cut down on her workload. Yet here she was again, letting herself be swept away into a situation and story she cared little for.

'Never again,' she told herself.

Doctor Johan Karlsson had been awaiting their arrival at Airbase Inari. Without so much as a word of welcome, he had ordered the cargo to be moved from the charter plane onto the helicopter that would fly them directly to their destination. Obviously agitated by their delay, the trio of newcomers opted to stear clear of Karlsson and turned their collective attention to the slightly mad looking man who accompanied him.

'Mark Turner, Sarah Jane Smith, and Dr. Marianne Holden?' the man inquired.

The trio nodded in unison while attempting to adapt to the cold, standing around in awe of the snowy white panorama.

'Ed Ramsey, lovely to meet you. I'll be flying you lot over to our little greenery...' He extended his right hand while pointing towards a huge white helicopter with the other. '...In that lovely looking lady.'

His accent was as thick and earthy as his fur coat, which Sarah guessed was an actual dead bear. He sure looked like he could manage to clobber one.

'Ah, a Scotsman,' Mark retorted cheerfully while shaking the pilot's hand.

'One of the journalists, eh?' Ramsey decided. 'Well you can save the interrogation for later. Right now you can earn your keep and give us a hand with these supplies.'

'Absolutely not!' Karlsson snapped as he passed the small gathering while carrying one of the containers. 'There's valuable equipment in these and some of it extremely fragile.'

He clearly spoke with a Scandinavian accent but for the life of her Sarah couldn't remember where exactly he came from. She had seen him in the information file she had been provided with but simply couldn't remember. She had never been this poorly prepared before.

'Anything else we can do to be of assistance perhaps?' Mark enquired as politely as possible.

'Try not to get in the way.' Karlsson replied. 'Or get left behind. Hah!'

Clutching a small black container and mumbling to himself, Karlsson trodded towards the chopper.

Patting Mark on the shoulder, Ramsey headed towards the remainder of the containers and grunted theatrically while lifting one of them.

'He's not always that cheerful,' he informed the trio standing idly by. 'Every now and then he gets quite broody.'

Most of the flight went by in complete silence. With every passing minute, Sarah grew more and more anxious. Had she made the right decision coming here? She felt her heart sink even further when thinking of Luke and Sky. Ten years ago, she would have relished every second of this fantastic opportunity. How a few years can change someone so much. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she truly understood what it was like to be homesick… and it was awful beyond description. The inescapable thought in the back of her mind that none of it was worth the hassle grew as they flew over the curvy white slopes of the north. It certainly wasn't worth missing her kids. Not even the breathtaking view above the Kebnekaise could make up for it. If anything the imposing views managed to make her feel more removed from herself and her own life the longer they remained in the air, and quite suddenly, she wondered whether they had perhaps reached another planet. Everything seemed so far away. Like she would never see any of it ever again.

She never wanted someone to hold and comfort her so badly in her life. Someone to listen to her thoughts, no matter how trivial or silly. The question she had avoided asking herself, as well as the inevitable verdict that went along with it, finally dropped like a gavel. She was getting too old for this. She was more than ready to save the world as long as she could do it from home.

'Make the best of this, Smith!' she strictly ordered herself. Many a journalist was envious of her being her. She owed it to herself as well as her profession.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

He was by her side as soon as the first tear fell, clumsily raising himself from the floor and nestling beside her.

'I'm fine,' she snapped as she stood up and pushed him away.

He pulled her down again just as quickly, and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

'Oh, Smith. Tell me all about it,' he told her as if shushing a small child.

He wiped away a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb, took the tray with tea and baked goods from the floor, and pulled her close again as he leaned back.

'Now, despite the obvious physical and mental discomfort you've experienced during the last twentyfour hours, what's really troubling you, eh?'

He waved a piece of cake in front of her nose to tempt her.

'Open up, Smith!'

She raised a suspicious eyebrow and confiscated the treat from him. 'That's where I draw the line.'

'I know it hasn't got anything to do with nearly being mauled,' He continued.

'Oh?'

'Well it was never cause for complaint when we were whizzing about the place.'

'Yes it was. And I did. You just weren't listening. Too busy sticking your head inside of the Tardis' controls.'

He seemed genuinely hurt by her remark as he sadly stuffed more cake into his mouth.

'If I gain a sudden amount of weight, it's your fault,' he complained. 'I'm an emotional eater.'

Sarah ignored his remark and carefully nibbled at the side of her portion, fully prepared to be disgusted. His culinary extremities were all too familiar to her tastebuds. Ketchup flavored ice cream, pizza with chocolate sauce and tuna, you name it, he ate it. To her surprise however, the cake was absolutely delicious.

'Since when do you cook?' she asked. 'I mean... edible things.'

'Oi! That's rich coming from the woman who habitually burnt the Tardis kitchen down!'

'Your memory must be going, dear, because I never did such a thing,' she teased.

'Ha!' He exclaimed before giving her another peck on her forehead.

'I took a few pointers from a pastry chef when I was visiting with old Lou in Versailles. Bertrand his name was. The chef, not His Majesty the king of France. Imagine a king being called Bertrand…'

'Not as bad as Queen Anna Coonda from Doonga Ralle.'

'Oh yeeeees,' The Doctor squealed. 'I remember her!'

'Oh of course you remember her,' Sarah ribbed. 'Poor ancient thing was so senile she thought you were her dead husband, Prince Bool Terriar.'

For a moment, they giggled in unison.

'It's always the dwarf planets,' he sighed, attempting to put a stop to his laughter.

'Oh dear, that's not very nice,' he added with a smile.

Sarah chuckled as she sipped her tea and cleared her throat when an uncomfortable silence arose.

'Go on, Smith, ask me.'

His tone had altered considerably from thirty seconds earlier.

'Ask you what?'

'About him.'

She closed her eyes. She never could hide anything from him, no matter what body.

''He's fine,' he said. 'Well, not really. As I remember, he is in severe pain and will continue to be for a few days yet, but he'll live, obviously. After all...'

He gave her a a wink and grinned. '..._I'm_ here, aren't I?'

'Where is he? Did he change?'

The Doctor smiled as he stood up and put the tray on her desk.

'I don't understand any of this, Doctor. I mean, you always said it was dangerous.'

After gazing at the floorboards for a moment, he approached and extended his hand without looking at her.

'I promise it will all make sense someday, Smith. Now, come with me. There's something I have to show you...'


	2. Chapter 2

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

The Doctor had thrown his jacket around Sarah's shoulders before leading her to the garage without a word of explanation. She had barely set foot in there for weeks. Her New Year's resolution of cleaning and organising the mess inside had come and gone, along with the list of other things she had promised herself to take care of months ago.

As they made their way to the garage door, the smell of rain and thawing mud from the garden filled her with an overpowering sense of solace and hope, and she couldn't help but smile a little. The couldn't explain why, but the seemingly trivial act of the Doctor pulling her along to garage suddenly made her giggle like a schoolgirl.

'Hmmm... Spring,' she whispered while closing her eyes and relishing in the sunlight. Still, she was grateful for the warm tweed wrapped around her upper body as she stood waiting in the morning chill.

'The time for new beginnings...' the Doctor muttered underneath his breath.

'Now... I hope you don't mind, Smith,' he warned while pulling up the garage door. '... but I took the liberty of making myself some much needed room in here.'

Her jaw hit the floor in amazement as the Doctor trodded further into the garage and carelessly flung himself onto a table against the right hand wall, beckoning her to step closer. The place looked impeccable. Everything was neatly organised in boxes. Not a cobweb in sight. The Tardis stood parked in the far left corner next to the old wooden desk that once belonged to her aunt Lavinia. On top of it, a heavy duty black laptop she had never seen before.

'When... when did you,' Sarah stammered as she shuffled forward indecisively.

'I got bored waiting for the cakes to rise.'

She raised an eyebrow and continued to approach him with sudden apprehension.

'What's going on?' she asked halting halfway toward him and placing her hands on her hips as though she had caught him with his in the cooky jar.

'What do you mean? Can't a man just clean out his best friend's garage, no questions asked?'

'I'd find it odd with anyone,' Sarah quipped. 'With you however, it's downright disturbing.'

He opened his mouth to answer but quickly changed his mind, thinking it best to not let her enumerate every past case in which his seemingly random acts of domestic behaviour had been cause for severe worry indeed.

'Remember that time you said you wanted to re-paint the Tardis control room orange...' she recalled gleefully.

'Yes, yes...'

He uncomfortably cleared his throat and scratched his head in embarrassment.

'... but you just needed the epoxy to get rid of that itchy microscopic fungus that attached itself to our skin on Quibbaxis Two?'

A soft chuckle escaped his throat as he recalled that particular day.

'... And I was wondering why you were more concerned with painting me rather than the walls?'

'Mr. Smith!' the Doctor exclaimed in a sudden panicked attempt to shut her up.

'Why orange though?' Sarah enquired mockingly.

'Yes, Doctor,' the Xylok's familiar voice replied without the usual introduction of loud fanfares as the laptop screen lit up.

Utterly taken by surprise, Sarah turned her attention away from teasing the Doctor and onto the computer screen.

'Wha...' she pointed towards it in disbelief.

The Doctor sprang from the table and draped his arm over Sarah's shoulder.

'Well...' He protested as Sarah looked on confused. 'It's just a tryout, I can add the music thingy later if you insist... Have you ever considered linking him up to your music files and inserting a randomiser so he plays a different opening tune every time?'

'I hardly feel such alterations would improve my functionality in any way shape or form, Doctor,' Mr. Smith replied monotonously through the laptop's tiny speakers.

'How did you...' Sarah muttered.

'It's an idea before its time,' the Doctor shot back at the computer.

'No, it isn't,' Mr. Smith informed him dryly.

'Can I just...' Sarah protested.

'Xyloks. No sense of humor. Can't do anything about _that_ I'm afraid,' The Doctor mumbled in Sarah's ear.

'I'm still in the room, Doctor,' Mr. Smith deadpanned.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' the Doctor quipped sarcastically. 'I thought you'd taken a stroll around the garden.' He giggled uncontrollably at his own remark while Sarah winced and simultaneously raised her hand.

'Excuse me!'

She sighed loudly and took a step towards Mr. Smith's brand new holiday residence.

'Could anyone inform the lady of the house, please?'

She turned around to face the Doctor, her face a mixture of agitation, concern, and curiousity.

'Doctor, what is the meaning of all this?'

He didn't break the sudden silence when he gave her a solemn look and pointed towards the left breast pocket of his jacket, still wrapped around Sarah's shoulders. Instead he nodded and motioned for her to put her hand in.

She hesitated for a moment before lifting her hand and cautiously exploring the inside of the pocket with her fingertips. She promptly felt the cold and smooth surface of a small device and carefully extracted it from the blazer. It was similar to a sonic screwdriver, though slightly chunkier and even more intricate in design.

He allowed her to investigate it further as he checked his watch. Immediately after doing so, a sorrowful expression overtook his features. Sarah knew something was wrong before even looking at him. There were no questions or clever remarks as she scanned the device for clues concerning its origin or function... just silence.

'What is it?' she asked, her voice barely rising above a worried whisper.

He approached her as she waited in anticipation. Instead of giving her an answer however, he placed a hand on her cheek and once again planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.

'I need your help, Smith,' he asked with a slight tremble in his voice before embracing her tightly. 'And I know that you will take care of me... because I remember it like it was yesterday.'

'What do you mean?' she asked as she rested her head against his chest, terrified due to the sudden change in his behaviour.

'Hyde Park,' he breathed into her hair.

He let go of her and placed both hands on her cheeks.

'Hyde Park,' he repeated. 'No sooner, no later.'

'Doctor, I... I don't...,' she stammered as she felt the onset of tears. Something was wrong. He wasn't acting right, even for him. 'What's wrong?'

'Listen, Smith. This is very important. I need you to do this for both of us, do you understand?'

She nodded in agreement and listened closely.

'Hyde Park.' he whispered, almost reverently. 'That's when it's time to let me go.'

* * *

**The Global Biota Repository - Site A  
**

**Two Days Earlier**

After being led through the heavy airlocked entrance doors of the Global Biota Repository, Ramsey began carrying supplies from the helicopter towards the lift.

'Those supplies can wait. Leave them!' Dr. Karlsson scowled from inside the hallway. 'Only this one is of importance for the time being,' he informed while lifting up the small black container he had held tightly since Airbase Inari.

'We'll send Artie up for the rest once we have settled everyone in. Useless lumber,' he finished.

As he entered the lift, he barely acknowledged the three guests, who had stood huddled together and had opened a sub-discourse of their own.

'Enough with the prattle!' Karlsson ordered while waving an impatient hand. 'I'd like to be on the Via Maris before nightfall cometh if you ladies don't mind.'

'We don't,' Mark replied with an attitude of polite agreement.

'Via Maris?' Sarah inquired while approaching the birdcage that would carry them down into the next phase of their journey.

'It's fine,' Ramsey warranted. 'He's a little tense. Best to just ignore it.'

As they descended into the darkness, Ramsey chuckled sardonically while switching on a pair of bright lights attached to the bottom of the cage. Through the trellice beaneath their feet, a depth so unsettling immediately revealed itself, that it caused the three guests to nervously clear their throats and grab hold of the nearest railing.

'No reason to deprive them of the view, I thought,' Ramsey grinned craftily.

'How deep is it?' Marianne enquired while she visibly avoided looking down in as subtle a manner as she could manage.

'This?' Ramsey asked pointing down laconically while scratching his head and raising his bushy eyebrows. 'Well...'

'Twelve hundred feet, Dr. Holden,' Karlsson interjected dryly.

'Mind you, that's just to reach the Hub,' Ramsey continued. 'Another twelve hundred down the north side of the facility when you visit our Greenhouse tomorrow morning.'

'Seems I was severely mistaken expecting two days of silence and ennui,' Mark whispered in Sarah's left ear... his hot breath sending a pleasant little shiver down her spine as it warmed her cold body, if only for a few seconds.

* * *

They soon arrived in a seemingly endless and grand concrete tunnel. 'Like a long gigantic tube station,' Sarah mumbled to herself as she and Mark closed the procession of five stepping out of the cage.

Clearly enjoying the stunned expression on the faces of their visitors, Ramsey laughed as he motioned toward a long utility vehicle parked against the wall.

'It's a seven minute drive to the Hub,' he informed them whilst casually taking place behind the wheel.

'That's where the main lab and living quarters are situated. And if you're impressed by this, I'm looking forward to seeing your mugs once we get there,' he concluded with suppressed excitement.

'I was expecting claustrophobic corridors and a tiny office,' Mark said enthusiastically as they placed their luggage onto the cart and stepped in.

'Nice and easy, Mr. Ramsey... And without the added fortitude of drink,' Karlsson warned his colleague, who had pulled a tiny bottle of liquor from his dead bear coat and was now guzzling down its content.

'It's a glorified golf cart, not a Hummer racing the M74 to Glasgow... Besides, I'm cold.'

'Put it away!' Karlsson replied bluntly.

Ramsey snuffed down his nose contemptuously while closing the bottle with obvious agitation.

'Warm yourselves, treasures,' he exclaimed as he carelessly flung the bottle over his shoulder and into Mark's lap.

''How long did it take to build this place?' Marianne enquired as soon as the vehicle gently took off.

'Six years' Ramsey replied languidly.

'Six?' Mark repeated in a disappointed manner as he began opening the bottle of liquor.

'No reason to take up drinking, dear,' Sarah jested with mock sternness.

The three passengers in the backseat winced in unison as they caught a whiff of the lunatic soup inside of the bottle.

'Christ, that'll...' Marianne began.

'...evaporate in front of you,' Sarah concluded, quickly holding her hand in front of her mouth and nose in disgust.

Mark quickly screwed it shut as Karlsson turned around and eyed his three guests before targeting Mark.

'How long should it have taken, Mr. Turner, pray tell,' he demanded coldly.

Mark shrugged his shoulders. 'I apologize, Dr. Karlsson,' he answered sheepishly. 'I go a bit lame in the head when I'm frozen stiff.'

The idea of inviting two nosy journalists clearly hadn't been his. The harder Mark tried to humour the scientist, the more suspicious Karlsson seemed to grow of him. He seemed well practiced in the art of precaution and was not going to tolerate frivolous behaviour on their part. Finding herself under the constant scrutiny of his insect-like eyes made her want to kick herself for having boarded Ramsey's helicopter in the first place, and she prayed the rest of the team were a bit more even-keeled than both men in front of her.

'How many people were involved with the construction?' Marianne asked gently in an attempt to break the sudden uncomfortable silence.

'Builders were kept to an absolute minimum at all times to avoid unwanted attention...' Karlsson began explaining with his back still turned towards them. '... and airlifting building equipment into a hostile climate like the one we have here doesn't exactly speed up an undertaking of this magnitude either.'

'Quite so,' Ramsey added in mock support of his colleague.

'The whole facility rotates around its axis,' he continued, refraining from reacting to Ramsey's tantrum. 'You see, this tunnel is merely a spoke of the wheel. We entered the facility on the South side... However, by the time we reach the Hub, which is only accessible on the North side, this tunnel will have rotated exactly one hundred and eighty degrees in order to line up with the entrance.'

'You mean we are moving right now?' Sarah asked.

'Indeed we are, Miss Smith.'

'But this tube is made of concrete and steel. How does it rotate?' Mark asked in disbelief.

Karlsson once again turned around to face Mark and stared at him blankly. 'And that's just the front door, Mr. Turner...'

'...Once we enter the Hub, the tunnel will rotate back, locking the centre off and preventing any unwanted visitors from entering.'

'Or leaving' Mark whispered.

'Would have to be one desperate cat burglar,' Ramsey mumbled.

Sarah surveyed her surroundings with a sudden amount of trepidation. The damp concave walls and tungsten halogen tubes above them made her feel like she was being driven into a prison.

'Not bad for a glorified greenhouse, is it?' Mark whispered in Sarah's ear. His voice had a soothing effect on her somehow. 'Still, I'm not convinced until I see some robotic gnomes dancing to the tune of 'Thank God I'm A Country Boy.'

An involuntary chuckle escaped her throat. She could have kissed him for his ability to put her at ease, but opted for a playful nudge to the ribs instead.

'But why go through so much trouble and spend so much private money to safeguard plantseeds?' Marianne wondered aloud.

'You of all people should understand it, Dr. Holden.' Karlsson replied. 'Suppose a global catastrophe occurs that wipes out life as we know it, yes? This is the botanical contingency plan. Every seed known to man will eventually end up here, ready to be planted should there ever come a time when it is needed in order to maintain our survival.'

He nervously tapped the top of the black container on his lap as he explained.

'This place, Dr. Holden, is the last resort. Although we work with the knowledge that it may seem improbable, we have to go about our business as if it's only a matter of _when_ it happens as opposed to _if_ it happens. And when that day comes, these precautions will seem arbitrary and minimal to every human being who gets to live _because_ of them.'

Sarah watched him intently. Part of her wanted to slap him for his arrogance towards a young biologist willing to give up several months of her life just to be here. On the other hand, she could hardly hold his fatalistic views against him, since it went hand in hand with a seemingly unwavering commitment.

To her, the constant threat against earth and its fragile inhabitants had grown as familiar as combing her hair each morning, and the idea that someone was preserving the future in such a grandiose way was consoling, albeit a tad disturbing when considering the apocalyptic scenario demanded to ever benefit from it in the first place. Marianne's question was the same she had had since finding out about this place. Who would spend millions upon millions to make this happen?

While entertaining the idea of global catastrophe and it's financial benefactors, a strange pattering noise began emanating from beneath the concrete upon which they were driving. Like dozens of tiny feet pacing nervously against the bottom of the floor. Suddenly, Sarah's instincts took control. She swiftly turned around in her seat, attempting to locate the source of the eerie sound. The tunnel behind them was empty.

A few loud clangs which nearly made her heart stop, and then... nothing.

'What's that noise?' Marianne enquired while also nervously scanning her surroundings.

'The exhaust pipes,' Ramsey informed her while nodding his head as if to reassure himself.

'That ladder over there,' he said while pointing towards a narrow bright yellow ladder attached to the lefthand side of the curved concrete tunnel. 'You see it?'

The three guests nodded as they closed in on it. The ladder disappeared into a perfectly rounded hole. Just big enough for one person to squeeze through.

'Up that ladder and down again lies the liver of this place, ladies and gentlemen.'

'The liver?' Mark repeated with a large grin as he looked down at the bottle in his hands.

'That's what you're hearing,' Ramsey continued, paying no attenion whatsoever to Mark's gentle mockery.

'She has a habit of moaning about everything that's expected of her. But don't worry, you'll get used to it. Give it a few days, and you'll be worrying when things are quiet. She's like any other woman in that regard,' he joked.

'Not just a vile taste in liquor, then...' Marianne whispered in Sarah's direction.

* * *

The ride towards the center of the facility had indeed taken seven minutes. Sarah felt trapped as they approached the end of the tunnel where a huge wall with hydraulics in front of both sides awaited their arrival.

It was... moving. Just like Karlsson had told them.

Sarah tried to determine whether it was the wall which was moving towards the left, or the tunnel moving towards the right.

'It's the tunnel', Karlsson said as if having read Sarah's mind. 'Just like I said.'

Ramsey parked the cart next to another one just like it. Next to the parked vehicles, a few snowjackets hung from a an old fashioned wooden hatstand which looked thoroughly out of place and grabbed sarah's attention as she retrieved her luggage from the back of the cart and made her way towards the wall.

Still clutching his black container, Karlsson halted next to her. Just having him near her made her feel jumpy. Still, she was impressed by the sample of engineering brilliance in front of her as she swung her backpack and purse around her shoulder.

'It takes exactly fourty-two seconds. How about that?' Ramsey added. He was smiling like a butcher's dog. As if he had built the place himself with a bucket of sand and a piece of string.

'Impressive,' Mark smiled.

'Ten, nine, eight.' Ramsey counted in anticipation.

Suddenly a loud scraping noise against the concrete floor grew louder as the tunnel seemd to slow down its rotation.

'What's going on?' Ramsey asked Karlsson confusedly.

They observed the wall for a moment and then... 'KLANG!' The tunnel halted.

'We seem to have stopped.' Mark quipped.

'You don't miss anything do you, Mr. Turner?' Karlsson deadpanned while approaching what looked like fusebox on the left side of the wall next to where the hydraulics began. He pressed a few buttons and waited.

'Does this happen often?' Marianne wondered aloud.

No one bothered to answer her.

'That's reassuring.' Mark commented whilst smiling at Sarah.

'Artie!' Karlsson shouted into the box.

'Intercom,' Sarah mused.

'Artie, we have a problem with Garm, it hasn't completed its rotation.'

Nothing.

A loud and desperate sigh escaped Ramsey's lips. 'Waiting for Johnny Five to screw his head on straight is gonna take us 'till dawn,' he drawled. 'Where's me bottle?'

Mark turned slightly and handed to him, never taking his eyes off the wall.

'Artie! We are locked out!' Karlsson shouted angrily, followed by a series of scandinavian words Sarah suspected were explicit and violent in nature. He was fuming with anger.

'Anyone for cards?' Mark asked seemingly in earnest.

Sarah was slightly comforted by her colleague's capacity to stay calm and lighthearted, but couldn't help be shocked by Karlsson's disturbing behaviour. She considered the horrific possibilities. They would be trapped with him for two days after all. It wasn't like her at all to pass such unfounded judgement, but there was something about him that genuinely made her question his sanity.

'I hope for his sake, he doesn't try anything, or I'll kick him straight in the...'

'Hey, are you alright?' Mark asked as he gently placed a reassuring hand on her left shoulder.

'I'm sure they will get it sorted out in no time.'

It was odd, but looking at him made her feel almost instantly smiled as he made his way towards the wall and crouched down, retrieving a camera from his backpack.

'Hey!' Karlsson cried in a crow-like tone. 'I don't remember you asking permission and I certainly don't remember_ me_ granting it!'

As soon as Mark tried to answer, the ground beneath them once again began its odd and creepy imitation of tapdancing pixies.

Then, without warning...

...darkness.

A slithering sound increased in volume until sarah was convinced it originated under her feet. Then...

Silence.

'Nobody panic.' Ramsey said loudly.

She stood motionless. It was pitchblack. Her heart pounding as a sinister prickle slowly made its way from her lower spine all the way up to her neck.

Seconds seemed like minutes as the death like stillness surrounding her was too much to bear.

She decided she'd had enough of this incompetence. In the darkness, she rummaged through her purse for her Sonic lipstick and quickly unscrewed the top. If no one else was going to to fix this blockage, her sonic lipstick would... She raised the tiny device and tried her best to aim at the hydraulics on the right side of the wall, where she knew no one was standing...

Suddenly, something clasped itself around her wrist and immediately let go again.

She gasped dropped the lipstick, which landed on the floor with a clattering sound which echoed against the curved walls.

Someone's hand, it _had_ to be.

'KLANG!'

Before having the chance to even panic, and as if someone or something was aware of what she was up to, the lights switched back on and the tunnel continued on its scheduled course as if nothing had happened.

She immediately crouched down and picked up her lipstick, glancing around to see who was standing closest to her. No one. 'No one could have made it back to their current position so quickly,' she mused silently.

'Aaaaah!' Ramsey exclaimed while the others let out a sigh of relief.

While nervously hiding the lipstick, Sarah noticed Karlsson watching her every move like a hawk.

He approached her and smiled coldly. The bulging eyes underneath his thin but darkly defined eyebrows boring their way towards her most inner secrets.

'Putting on makeup in the dark is a tricky business, Miss. Smith,' he hissed.

She swallowed, desperately thinking of a lighthearted reply.

'Why, Dr. Karlsson, I didn't expect you to be the type,' she aswered with equal calm, accompanied by her best smile to sell it better.

Her attempt at easing the tension had little effect.

An alarm bell went off in her mind as he turned away from her without so much as blinking.

Suppressing a loud sigh of relief as he left, she noticed Mark also eyeing her. He smiled shyly before diverting his attention back towards the moving wall. She hoped she hadn't gone red.

'Wait... was he just checking me out?' Sarah wondered silently while still spooked out by Karlsson's demeanor.

As the tunnel completed its rotation and two airlocked doors appeared in front of them, Marianne approached her.

'What was that all about?'

Sarah shrugged.

'Karlsson seriously gives me the creeps,' Marianne added.

'Everyone inside!' Ramsey bellowed.

As everyone headed for the entrance, Sarah lagged behind with the murmurs of departure in font of her and pondering her standoff with Karlsson.

'It was him. He knows you were up to something, old girl.' A voice in the back of her head informed her.

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

No sooner had the Tardis dissolved into the the chilly morning air, or a girl's voice called out to her from the driveway.

'Mum!'

'Sky and Luke,' Sarah mused with her eyes still fixed on the spot where the blue box had stood less than a minute earlier. She clutched the alien device tightly in her right hand.

'Sarah Jane, may I suggest you keep that somewhere safe. It is of the outmost importance,' Mr. Smith suggested evenly.

'What did he tell you?' Sarah demanded.

'Mum?' Sky asked from underneath the garage door with Luke standing next to her. Both had their hands full with shopping bags and plain brown boxes.

'You and I are not done,' she warned the Xylok before sliding the device back in the Doctor's pocket and simultaneously aiming her attention towards her kids. They had dropped the bags and boxes and were in her arms before she could say anything.

'Oh...' she muttered while kissing both. 'I've missed you so much. Every second. Where is K9?'

'In the car. Mum, what happened?' Luke asked in a tone that mostly consisted of worry, but definitely included curiousity and excitement.

'Later,' she whispered as she once again pulled them both into a tight embrace.

'Mum, where is the Doctor?' Sky inquired enthusiastically as she scanned the garage in confusion. 'Wait... did you clean or something?'

'I can assure you that Sarah Jane did no such thing.' Mr. Smith answered the girl.

'Mr. Smith!' Sky exclaimed as Sarah rolled her eyes. 'How did you get in there?'

'A network was installed which now allows me to connect with every computer linked to it.'

'The Doctor?' Luke asked in his mother's ear.

Sarah nodded and raised her hand.

'Alright, you two. I'll tell you everything, but first... What's in those?' Sarah asked pointing at the bags and boxes on the floor.

'The Doctor gave us a list!' Sky exclaimed while jumping towards Sarah and waving a piece of paper.

Sarah accepted the list and kissed her daughter on the nose.

'Let's see... Elasticated bandages, cotton balls, low adherent dressings, disinfectant spray... Do not administer painkillers of any sort under any circumstance, Smith.'

For a moment, Sarah looked up from the list and shook her head.

'The Doctor said UNIT will be delivering some more things during the next few days as well,' Luke informed her.

'What?' Sarah asked to which Luke shrugged his shoulders. 'He said to call Kate Stewart and that you'd have the number through Alistair.'

Sarah nodded in confusion and returned her attention to the piece of paper in her hands.

'Plans for old girl are in Mr. Smith,' she read aloud.

'What?!' she fretted.

'... grey tweed trousers size fourty-two from Brown's Gentlemen clothing, but purchase braces also... braces are cool.'

'... I don't think you kids should spend too much time with him, he's clearly lost his mind...'

'...as redundant as that may sound...'

'The lady in the clothing store looked at us funny,' Sky retorted with a giggle. 'No one wears a wool scarf this time of year, she said. She had on too much make-up.'

Sarah's smile disappeared at Sky's remark, a look of sudden realisation now in its place.

'Oh my God...' Sarah breathed as she let the note fall to the floor and charged out of the garage. 'Put that stuff in the kitchen!' she yelled halfway towards the front door.

She climbed up the stairs faster than ever before, her heart pounding heavily in her chest as she struggled to control her breathing. He was here. She knew he was here.

Something took control of her instincts and guided her straight to her bedroom. Barging through the door, her heart sank as soon as switched on the lights.

No one. The bedroom was empty...

Rubbing her eyes, she plopped on the bed. 'Smith, you silly old woman.' she mumbled with her face in the pillow. She lay there for almost a minute before she suddenly raised her face in recognition of something... That smell on her pillow... It was...

Behind her, slow footsteps approached the doorway and halted there.

'Sarah?' a familiar, almost miraculously beautiful, but weakened voice muttered.

She turned around slowly, fighting every fibre of her being that wanted to break down in tears of joy as soon a she laid eyes on him.

'Doctor...'


	3. Chapter 3

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

The Doctor stood numbly in the doorway, wrapped in one of her bedsheets and wearing nothing but his underwear. Momentarily oblivious to his undesireable state of health, Sarah flew towards him with great determination. He suppressed a groan as their bodies collided and reached for the doorframe to maintain his balance while Sarah snaked her arms around him.

As an uncomfortable silence immediately manifested itself, Sarah slowly retracted her arms and backed away from him. He didn't react. Instead, his blue eyes seemed to be locked onto something invisible in the far end of the room. Or perhaps it was merely his body which occupied the space inbetween the doorway while his mind roamed freely throughout the cosmos.

She carefully scanned his blank and absent expression for a clue that would reveal something... anything. What was he thinking? How did he feel? The only thing directly visible was that he looked ready to collapse due to sheer exhaustion.

'Doctor?' she whispered so as not to startle him while he stood deeply entranced in something other than the here and now.

'Doctor?' she repeated after another moment of silence which caused her to worry even more. This time however, he slowly blinked while narrowing the space between them and locking his gaze onto hers.

'Did I remember to set the coordinates for earth, Vicky?' He asked her in complete earnest while placing a laconic hand on her shoulder. '...I erm, I seem to be getting quite forgetful as of late. Be a good girl and tell me, will you?'

'Oh dear,' Sarah mused silently.

'Doctor, it's me,' she informed him gently while taking his hand and guiding him towards the bed. She had never seen him this confused before. Sure, she had known his mind to check out on occasion... but never like this.

'Where are my trousers, Vicky? Perhaps I left them in the control room,' he muttered while Sarah helped him into bed.

'We are not in the Tardis, Doctor. And why would you take off your trousers in the...' she inhaled sharply as she pulled the sheet from his shoulders and was suddenly confronted by the wreckage that was the right side of his upper torso.

'Oh...' she gasped as she raised a trembling hand in front of her mouth and investigated the two stitched up holes which she quickly diagnosed as bullet wounds. She wasn't an expert by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, she had grown more familiar over the years with extra-terrestrial weaponry and the trauma _they _caused than she ever had been with those of earth.

'When did this happen?' she mused aloud, not expecting him to reply given his condition. His eyes were closed as she gently tucked him in and sat down beside him on the edge of the bed.

'Sarah...' he drawled languidly, his eyes still shut.

She smiled at his mention of her name. At least he had recognised her.

'Shhh... It's alright. Just sleep,' she whispered as she tucked him in further.

'But I already have...'

He muttered the words like a child stubbornly fighting obvious fatigue. Less than a minute later however, he seemed well on his way towards deep sleep. If she had to hazard a guess, she'd say that he had been drugged quite severely in the Tardis on their way over here. But then again she had no knowledge of the neurological effects two holes blown through the chest would have on a Timelord.

He needed rest and a lot of it.

Suddenly reminded of the Doctor's list and the words he had spoken to her in the garage, Sarah attempted to make sense of the situation. She would nurse him back to health, that much was obvious now. From what he had told her, it seemed as though she had already done so... or at least from his time perspective. Or had he meant something different entirely when he told her he knew she'd take care of him because he remembered?

She sighed and focused her gaze on the Doctor's face as she tried to untangle this apparent timestream pickle she found herself in. It was impossible, surely... wasn't it? he had always said that crossing one's own timestream was risky business. Of course, no one followed his own advice less frequently than the Doctor.

'Master?' a binary voice inquired from the hallway.

'Master?'

K9 appeared in the doorway and headed straight for the Doctor.

'Master,' he repeated yet again.

It was as though, for the first time ever, the dog was genuinely happy to see someone. Perhaps she was just projecting her own feelings on a silly computer with wheels. And yet, as he started waving his 'tail', his system gurgling as he called out to his long lost friend, she was convinced he had somehow missed this Doctor as much as she had. After all, he was also K9's Doctor.

Smiling, Sarah arose from the bed and put her index finger to her lips, signaling for the tin dog to keep the volume down.

'He is hurt, K9. He needs to rest,' Sarah whispered.

'Diagnose correct, Mistress. Vitals weakened. Master must regain strength,' he informed dryly while still waggling his tail with great enthusiasm.

'Mum?' Luke asked from the doorway. 'Is everything alright?'

'Shhhh,' Sarah ordered.

The young man's unbridled curiousity immediately got the better of him as he closed in on the bed in a somewhat suspicious manner.

'Who's that?' he whispered while pointing at the Doctor.

'Come on, you two,' Sarah mouthed while silently trodding towards the door and beckoning both Luke and K9 to join her.

As Luke followed his mother into the hallway, K9 didn't move a wire.

'K9...' Sarah said.

'...Will stay with master untill complete recovery,' the dog finished.

'K9, come here, that's an order,' Luke attempted.

But again... the dog refused to leave the Doctor's side and simply remained where he was parked.

* * *

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

As the heavy glass entry doors to the Vault's Hub opened in front of them, three jaws collectively hit the floor in amazement. Even Sarah, despite being well acquainted with the most advanced displays of technological advancement, was thoroughly impressed.

'Holy...' Marianne gasped as she slowly shuffled forward.

To their left, the entire wall was covered with screens monitoring what seemed like every inch of the facility. High definition representations of a seemingly endless amount of corridors, lift interiors, stairways, and yes, the greenhouse itself, which as far as Sarah could tell from a monitor, was immense.

The screens served as the sole light source in the otherwise dark lab.

Behind the monitors, and closer to where they stood, an area with holographic displays begged for more gasps. Some were 3D representations of the facility and its infrastructure, while others represented a databank of the various plants in the collection. There were too many things to look at. To their right, a series of heavy duty computers, some of which running various calculations, like a matrix of information.

'Artie!' Karlsson shouted angrily.

'He's probably in the kitchen making coffee,' Ramsey informed him gently as Karlsson steamed passed him, seemingly in search of a victim.

'I'll be in the greenery. Tell him he's fired!' he shouted while carrying the black box through another double glass door and disappearing behind the corner.

'He's not usually like this,' Ramsey told Marianne in an attempt to make her feel at home.

'So what do you think of the office?'

Sarah tried to take in as much as she could. Sometimes, she was proud to be human. To see an example wherein human technological ingenuity was put to use to preserve and study the natural forthcomings of the planet was always welcome. Her mind wandered to her own garden and how much she had neglected it lately. Then again, it wasn't the only thing she had neglected. It seemed that for years now, everything she knew that gave her some peace had been pushed aside.

'Impressive, isn't it?' Mark asked as he closed in on her, his blue eyes scanning her features, seemingly searching for a clue that would reveal what she was thinking. She nodded quietly and treated him to a warm and easy smile.

'Password! BRAAAAAAAAK! Password,' a screechy voice suddenly squawked from somewhere behind them.

While Ramsey strutted over towards a computer to punch in some numbers while looking utterly unimpressed by the odd voice emanating from somewhere in the room, the trio of guests turned in circles, attempting to locate the sound.

A bespectacled face arose slowly from behind one of the desks. A parrot sat on the man's right shoulder, both of them scanning the visitors from head to toe.

'You can come out now, Artie, he's gone to the greenery,' Ramsey informed both man and bird.

He was a little man. No hair to speak of save a thinning patch hugging the circumferance of his otherwise shiny bald had. His mousy features were accompanied by an equally odd yet sympathetic voice.

'I wasn't hiding,' he said defensively and unconvincingly.

'Of course you weren't,' Ramsey replied in an uninterested tone of voice.

'Arthur Leiberman. ICT.' He trodded over towards Sarah like a suspicious dog, both hands clutched tightly around a styrofoam cup of some steamy substance or other as the red and green bird on his shoulder began bopping his head nervously. Her vision involuntarily lowered from the parrot to the mousy man's feet and the brown sandals and multi-coloured socks he was wearing. He couldn't have been more of a contrast to both Ramsey and Karlsson.

Extending his hand in a shy and nervous fashion, he held a look of recognition about him.

'Sarah Jane Smith,' she said while shaking the man's hand. 'It's very nice to meet you. I'm thoroughly impressed by everything I've seen so far'.

'I've read your book on UNIT,' he said. 'I enjoyed it.'

Sarah was genuinely surprised. She rarely met people who were even aware of its existence.

After greeting Mark and Marianne in an equally awkward fashion, he turned to Ramsey and proudly updated him.

'We fixed the glitch in the algae basin thermometer.'

'Never mind that, Artie,' replied Ramsey, who by now stood next to the guests with his arm crossed, waiting for an explanation. 'Why don't you tell us what all that was about just now, eh?'

Artie seemed genuinely confused by Ramsey's question.

'What?'

'We were locked out. Damned tunnel seized up during rotation.'

The mousy man rubbed his bald head and began stuttering. ' No. Th-tha-tha-that's impossible. Argus never informed me of any mechanical glitches. Did you follow proper protocol when you came in? You must have...'

'We did everything the way we always so, Leiberman,' Ramsey interrupted in an agitated fashion. 'Whether or not Pinocchio warned you about it is another matter.'

'If it weren't for Argus...' Artie began.

'He's not a real boy, Artie,' Ramsey informed him sardonically.

Watching Artie, Sarah felt for him. He seemed utterly knocked off balance by this news and she couldn't help but wanting to tell him that it was all alright, but she opted for silence instead. After all, she was a guest.

'Argus? Who's Argus?' Marianne enquired suddenly.

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Sarah was exceedingly proud of herself. She had managed to make a whole kettle of fresh soup without the added drama of explosions, smoke, blood, or even the usual gigantic mess she somehow ended up creating each time she set out to prepare even the simplest of meals.

'Are you certain he eats soup?' Sky enquired skeptically while investigating the fruits of her mother's cooking as Luke placed a steaming bowel in front of her.

Sarah eyed the girl for a moment before shrugging her shoulders.

'Be careful, it's burning hot,' she informed her children while taking a seat beside them at the kitchen table.

'Well...' Sarah continued. 'He's unwell. And when people are unwell, we make them soup,' She nodded to convince both kids as well as herself.

'It's delicious, Mum,' Luke interjected, prompting a grateful smile from Sarah.

'Perhaps where The Doctor comes from, people eat other things when they're ill,' the girl suggested with trademark enthusiasm.

'Like spiders and centipedes and...'

'Lu-uke!' Sky exclaimed in an almost painfully high pitch, horrified at the mere mention of the creepers.

'Afternoon, freaks and geeks!' A familiar voice shouted from the sitting room.

'Clyde and Rani,' Luke said casually between two sips.

'Please, you two. Remember what I said, okay?' Sarah whispered.

Sky nodded happily. To her, the prospect of keeping something hidden from their friends seemed like a rather fun experiment. To Luke however, the prospect of lying was a must unwelcome one... not to mention a recipe for disaster, since he had never been capable of doing so successfully, especially regarding something as exciting as the Doctor visiting.

Sarah cleared her throat as Clyde and Rani entered the kitchen, immediately suspicious of the sudden awkward silence.

'Sarah Jane, you're home...,' Rani said in a tone that was easy to mistake as disappointment from someone who had been looking forward to one more day of fun at the Smith house without Mother interfering. 'What happened, I thought you were coming back tomorrow night?'

Sarah opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by Clyde.

'What's with the old man's robes on the stairs? Don't tell me,' he teased while patting Luke on the shoulder. '...New Oxford fashion?'

Sarah winced as she remembered her plans to take them up to her bedroom.

'That's funny,' she told Clyde while feigning anger. 'I seem to remember those were still packed in shopping bags...'

'You know me,' Clyde protested while lifting himself up onto the counter. 'Investigating is like second nature to me. Learned from the best,' he winked.

'You're just a nosy bugger, Clyde, there's a difference,' Rani shot dryly.

'Okay, okay!' Sky screeched in a sudden panic. 'It's the Doctor! The Doctor's in Mum's bedroom!'

Sarah and Luke simultaneously rolled their eyes and sighed with obvious annoyance while Clyde and Rani's eyes grew large with excitement.

'What?' They cried almost simultaneously.

'Wicked,' Rani snorted. 'Where's the invasion?'

'Never mind that. What's he doing in your bedroom?' Clyde teased suggestively.

'Nice one, Sky,' Luke snapped at his sister, who shrugged and smiled innocently.

'So which one is it this time?' Rani asked while staring off into the distance in a pensive and slightly yearning manner. 'Is it the dishy one?' she asked Luke.

'Does that mean he has a face like a plate?' Sky enquired with earnest curiousity. 'No darling,' Sarah said calmly.

'As if Luke would know which one is the 'dishy' one,' Clyde said.

'He's big and curly,' Sky pointed out while returning her attention to her soup. The girl's remark caused Sarah to blush slightly. She stood up in a panic and headed towards the refrigerator. More so to hide her face than to peruse its contents. She couldn't believe her own giddiness.

'Big and curly? As in fat and shaped like pasta?' Clyde ribbed.

'As in extremely tall and the shape of his hair, Clyde,' Luke replied while wiping his mouth.

'A new one then!' Rani gasped.

'A new one? Rani, he's not a batch Pokémons. We're not supposed to catch 'em all.'

'Shut up, Clyde. Tell me, Sky... is he cute?'

'It's Mum's one,' the young girl replied casually.

'Alright, everyone!' Sarah cried, throwing both hands up and appealing for calm. 'Out,' she ordered them in a friendly manner while heading over to the sitting room and momentarily disappearing from their sight.

'What?' Clyde protested in dismay.

Sarah quickly reappeared in the kitchen with her wallet. 'Here,' she said while grabbing Rani's hand and stuffing it with money. 'Go and see a movie, have some fun, and bring us back some pizza.'

'We just ate,' Luke said confusedly.

'For dinner,' Sarah replied. 'I don't want to see any of you in this house before six.'

'Why won't you share in the fun?' Clyde protested. 'This is bad parenting! What's the matter? Are you scared he'll tell us a thing or two about young and wild Sarah Jane?'

'There won't be any fun, Clyde. The Doctor is recovering from serious injuries.' Luke informed him solemnly while stacking the empty bowels and placing them in the sink.

'What?' Rani gasped. 'Is he going to be alright?'

'Well, obviously,' Sky answered as if it was an extremely silly question. 'You've seen his future versions, haven't you? And it's my turn to pick the film!'

'Right. Versions that aren't your mum's, 'Clyde grinned, unaware of just how much his remark pained Sarah.

'Off you go, guys,' she ordered gently with her arms crossed, growing more and more impatient.

* * *

As she led the youngsters out of the house and closed the door behind them, Sarah exhaled loudly and slowly eased herself onto the staircase in order to regain her thoughts. Reaching inside one of the shopping bags next to her, the first thing she felt was the smooth soft texture of the wool scarf. She couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of it. It was so plain that the idea of him in it was almost impossible to conjure up.

The grey tweed trousers would suit him... after all, they were as good as identical to the ones she had always seen him wear. Her Doctor needed soft textures for comfort and security. Often she had smiled and thought he looked adorable when he raised his scarf to his face as if to console himself.

There were two white dress shirts, a brown velvet blazer, a pair of brown leather brogues, and brown leather braces. Luke and Sky had somehow bought the exact type of clothes he was used the wearing. It was him. Just a little more subdued, more acceptable and less likely to draw immediate attention should he leave the house once recovered. That was another thing...

What was he supposed to do once they got that far? She had to admit to not minding the idea of him being stranded in her house even in the slightest. She couldn't even begin to explain how much she enjoyed knowing he was near her. But the fact of the matter was that once able to move about properly, he would lose his mind having to stay in one spot for more than a day.

Would the Doctor come and pick himself up in the Tardis? She didn't understand any of it.

'Hyde Park...' she muttered. 'That's when I have to let him go.' She let out another heavy sigh and rubbed her eyes with her palms before slowly pulling herself up on the bannister. 'How am I supposed to know what that even means, Doctor,' she whispered to herself while heading for the kitchen.

She hadn't turned her back towards the front door for more than two seconds when suddenly, the bell rang.

'For God's sake,' she fretted while opening the door in a rather violent manner. 'Luke, don't tell me you need m-' She swallowed the rest of the sentence as she was faced, not with Luke and the gang, but with a rather tall blonde woman in a beige trenchcoat who immediately smiled and extended her hand.

'Nice to see you again, Sarah Jane.'

'Kate', Sarah smiled. 'Likewise. It's been too long. Come here, Stewart.'

Sarah smiled and embraced her tightly. It had been months since she had seen her. They had vowed to stay in touch at Alistair's funeral but with both of them so busy, it was nearly impossible to get together.

'How are you holding up?' Sarah enquired.

'It's getting better. Gordon is still having a rough time though... He and dad did so many things together.'

Sarah nodded. 'I know... Whenever I would see Alistair, he would always boast about his grandson's fishing skills.'

Kate chuckled. 'Dad had to be the lousiest fisherman in the whole of Great Britain though.'

As the two women began to engage in merry banter and Sarah invited her into the house, several people in uniform scattered up her driveway with wooden boxes. The word 'FRAGILE' sprayed all over them in large red letters.

'Ah!' Kate exclaimed. 'Put them in the garage, please, ladies and gentlemen.'

'Wait! Wha- What are those?' Sarah cried, suddenly aggravated by UNIT's usual let's-make-ourselves-at-home approach.

'The Doctor asked us to deliver these things to you on this day, Sarah Jane,' Kate informed her in a sudden business-like manner. 'Some of them have been collecting dust at UNIT HQ for months. He's been systematically dropping them off with us but refused to explain what they were for. Three days ago we received the last one along with this note...'

Kate retrieved a sealed envelope from her pocket and presented it to Sarah.

'Well, what's in them?' Sarah asked confusedly as she accepted the envelope and lept onto the driveway while watching the boxes being stacked on top of each other inside her garage.

'We have no idea. He made us vow not to open them. Even if we wanted to, the locks are indecipherable. As far as we can tell, they are Gallifreyan in origin.'

Kate smiled and placed a reassuring hand on Sarah's shoulder. 'Don't worry... We'll be out of your hair as soon as possible. That was also part of the Doctor's request.'

* * *

**Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

'Argus? Who's Argus?' Marianne enquired suddenly.

Enthused by the question, Artie grabbed hold of the nearest swivel chair and rolled over to the keyboard in front of the surveillance screens. As he cracked his fingers and entered a code, the parrot once again began bopping his head as if in agreement with his owner's actions. 'Password'' He once again squawked.

'Argus,' the bird continued. 'Argus'.

'Argus Bootup,' Artie said loud and clear.

'Yes, Arthur,' an almost eerily calm voice replied through every speaker in the lab.

'Argus, scan for mushrooms during the last two hours,' Artie ordered.

'Scanning,' the voice immediately replied.

'Mushrooms, eh? So basically Argus is a male Siri,' Mark retorted.

'Ouch,' Ramsey mumbled before coughing and signaling towards Mark in a 'Please, don't go there' manner.

Artie, looking insulted, merely glared at Mark. But it was obvious he would have punched him in the face had he himself been more physically capable of doing so. he quickly relaxed the wound up muscles in his face and directed his attention back onto his computer.

'Mushrooms are computer bugs, Mr. Turner,' Artie sighed. 'Argus overlooks everything in the facility. He warns us of technological glitches and has the ability to correct and override human error.'

'He means we're all just Big Brother's puppets,' Ramsey said in an annoyed fashion. Clearly, the Scotsman had little patience where the supercomputer was concerned.

'If it weren't for Argus, this facility would have to be operated by fifty people at least,' Artie informed the visitors while also treating Ramsey to an attempt at the evil eye.

'Not to mention that you would have to account for every mistake you make.'

'I'm not the one who locked us out, Gepetto,' Ramsey shot back instantly.

'Scan completed' Argus informed as Artie sat in his chair like a distraught child.

'One mushroom detected at fifteen hundred hours and forty one minutes. Intruder alert. Commence mechanical lockdown. Manual override procedure rejected.'

'Why?' Ramsey asked.

'Intruder alert. Safety of facility compromised.'

'Is he talking about us three?' Sarah enquired. 'Are we the intruders?'

'Probably,' Ramsey answered.

'That's i-i-impossible,' Artie stuttered in Ramsey's direction. 'He k-k-knew there was a guestlist of three. There's no way he wouldn't have accounted for them.'

Ramsey leaned over towards his colleague and grinned. 'Sort out this binary bitch of yours, will you?' He whispered with obvious annoyance. 'You better fix it or else think of a good excuse before Karlsson gets back from the greenhouse.'

He patted Artie on the shoulder and stood up straight. 'Now, let's give our guests a profile.'

Artie sighed. 'Right. I've already prepared them. They just require voice recognition... Argus?'

'Yes, Arthur,' the computer replied.

'Access Profile Sarah Jane Smith. Vocal recognition.'

'No pattern detected for Sarah Jane Smith.'

'Miss. Smith, would you be so kind as to tell him your name once he starts recording,' ordered the mousy man nervously.

Sarah closed in on Artie and nodded her head. 'Of course.'

'Argus,' Artie began. 'New vocal pattern input for Sarah Jane Smith.

'Recording' Argus informed.

'Sarah Jane Smith'

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Sarah slowly opened her bedroom door to see the Doctor still peacefully asleep. She sighed a contented breath of relief that he wasn't in pain and shuffled forward with the envelope delivered by kate still in her hand, careful so as not to rouse him. K9 hadn't moved an inch since she and Luke had left them earlier.

'Good afternoon, Mistress,' he greeted with lower volume than usual.

'Afternoon, K9,' Sarah replied with a proud smile while heading over to the chaise longue by the window.

'How is he?' she asked while easing herself onto the comfy seat.

'Master improving rapidly. Timelord cells require minimum time to reach complete recovery after damage in comparison to human's.'

Sarah watched him intently. He looked so vulnerable... so very human. She caught herself smiling as she let her eyes wander over every inch of his skin not covered by the sheets. 'Mighty Timelord sleeping like a baby,' she whispered adoringly before suddenly being reminded of the letter in her hands.

She carefully opened the envelope and unfolded the sheet of paper...

_Dear Smith,_

_By the time you read this letter, I should be fast asleep in your bedroom with K9 monitoring my every breath. Don't worry too much about my wounds... __I took care of them in the Tardis sickbay. They do require regular disinfecting though, if you would be so kind._

_I am fully aware of how trying and confusing this ordeal must be, Smith, and all I can ask is that you trust me now as I trusted you then and there, at the same time and __in the same place you are now._

_If all went according to plan, this letter was delivered along with a few boxes. Good thing you keep your garage so neat and UNIT could store them there, eh?. __I regret to inform you however, that those boxes are not for you. They are for me._

_Very soon now, I will have recovered. When I have, take me to them. I locked them myself and I can open them myself._

_And Smith... keep them safe. They mean the universe to me._

_When the time comes, I will tell you everything. For now, be happy. Enjoy the time you're given with me. With him. With us._

_I remember every minute of it. And you have every single one of them to look forward to._

_P.S. Your soup really is delicious. Or perhaps I'm just romanticising the past, I'm not sure. I tend to do that._

_Love,_

_The Doctor._

Sarah's face was frozen in time. For a moment, she didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or just combine the two to cover all bases. One thing was clear... she had no idea what was going on but it wasn't going to stop her from enjoying every moment with him.

She was brought back to reality by the sound of the Doctor murmuring in his sleep.

Rising from her seat, she slowly approached the bed. She couldn't restrain herself as she reached out and gently combed a few damp curls away from his face with her fingers before leaning over and placing an affectionate kiss on his cheek.

'I'm so glad you're here with me.'


	4. Chapter 4

**This is an exceptionally long one. If you don't appreciate long chapters, let me know, and I'll cut them up in the future :)  
**

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

As she stood beside the bed and looked down at him, she decided her memories of him hadn't even done him justice. Not his oddness, nor his effortless enigmatic charm. Despite having wondered many times whether she wasn't romanticising their joined past, and especially him, it didn't come as a surprise either... as time passed, more and more thing seemed to have neatly organised themselves within a place of something approaching neutrality in her mind.

Memories which once seemed either too painful or embarrassing to recall without wincing had morphed into mere bumps or curves in the road, some of them cause for laughter even... Similarly, those memories of which she had wanted to perserve their beauty forever, had also faded in their intensity. They were remembered with fondness and joy, but had ceased to deliver the same sense of euphoria they once did.

As much as she had wanted to remember every detail of his face, every semi-tone of his rich voice, and each aromatic nuance of the TARDIS mingled with him and the clothes he wore, the scents and tastes of alien worlds... she hadn't been able to hang on to them. A rare few had been perserved. Most of them had been lost forever.

Having him with her again, rekindled that intensity of memory and senses with unwavering persistence. For years, it had been as though this precious and raw part of her had been corked and now it had been popped. She smiled as he let out a soft childlike moan and slightly altered the position of his legs. Even when asleep, there was something truly magical about him. She experienced a sudden desire to comfort him. To carress and explore every inch of his features, yet was grateful for the ability to suppress the impulse.

'Oh, Smith, get a grip,' she sighed silently.

She put the letter in her pocket and once again sat down beside him. Looking at her hands she had decided they had aged a lot. There were still moments, and many of them in fact, when she didn't feel a day over thirty five. It was only her hands that reminded her of the truth every time she caught a glimpse of them while performing routine every day acts.

The tables had turned on them... appearance-wise at least. She had lived almost four decades more and he didn't look a day older. She was surprised that it should suddenly bother her so much... or fill her with an insecurity she had never experienced before rather. She still turned heads and she knew it, even those of men, and occasionally women, who were considerably younger. She had always been determined to age gracefully and without complaints and had managed to do so as well. There was only one man who succeeded in making her feel old and the version of him who was best at it, she decided swiftly, despite being older looking than the other two, was lying in front of her.

'I've wondered so many times what this moment would be like,' she whispered. 'After we parted, it was a given... It would simply be a matter of time before you came back...' She placed her right hand on top of his and compared their sizes while attempting to clear the lump in her throat. Their hands had always found each other and fitted together effortlessly, whatever was required of them... Whether he was swinging her 'round a corner to hide, pulling her to safety from sickening depths, or simply clasped together while enjoying one another's company. Their hands always instinctively found each other.

'I never once entertained the idea that it could take half a lifetime,' she sighed tremulously.

'Master asleep, Mistress,' K9 informed her dryly. 'Attempt at conversation rendered completely useless.'

Sarah managed a chuckle while wiping a stray tear from her cheek as she carefully got up from the bed and passed the tin dog on her way to the door.

'Thank you, K9. But not to me.'

* * *

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

The dimly lit living quarters had held a claustrophobic grip on Sarah from the moment she had entered them. As they were being escorted out of the Lab and through a series of corridors, she attempted to spot as many of the cameras as she could find but none were visible. The idea of being watched constantly by an artificial intelligence made her feel uneasy and she hoped there wouldn't be any spyware hidden in the sleeping quarters.

She was relieved to find out everyone had their own individual room, and couldn't suppress a smile of relief as Ramsey opened the door to hers. Despite the foreign and unsettling surroundings, she was ever so grateful to be reassured of a few moments of peaceful and quiet privacy.

'Dinner is planned for half past six. You'll meet Reid and Seymour then. In the meantime, feel free to roam around in the living quarters after you have settled in,' Ramsey informed her politely.

'How do you know I won't sneak off?' Sarah asked teasingly. 'I'm a journalist, I may want to investigate.'

Ramsey chuckled heartily. 'Well, be my guest,' he offered while motioning his hand towards the corridor in overly dramatic fashion.

'But remember, Argus is watching. He always knows where you are.'

He feigned a look of terror and pointed upwards towards yet another camera hanging from the corridor's ceiling as he left the room.

'Mr. Ramsey?!' Sarah called out.

He stuck his head back in view from behind the door opening, attempting to seem curious and interested.

'When will we be going into the actual...'

'First thing tomorrow morning, Miss Smith,' he interrupted. 'However, you can ask everyone as many questions as you like during dinner for preparation.'

'Thank you,' she replied kindly.

He nodded his head in reply before disappearing once again.

Sarah glanced around the room and decided it wasn't all too bad. Spartan and militaristic, yet strangely cozy.

After closing the heavy steel door, she placed her bag atop the bed and crawled in hands and knees first like a toddler. She was overcome with sudden fatigue. The long journey and subsequent descent into this scientific imaginarium had finally proven to be too much for her system to swallow. A slight smile spread across her face as she eased her head upon the coarse bur ever-so-welcome pillow, and closed her eyes.

'Just... just a few minutes,' she yawned.

She shot up a few seconds later to the sound of a high pitched alarm accompanied by violent screams just outside her room. Startled by the sudden racket, her immediate instinct was to reach for her sonic lipstick. The room was dark. 'That's odd,' she mused while searching. It hadn't been dark when she went to sleep, had it?

Probably a power failure or something.

'Sarah!' A muffled voice yelled from behind the door. The noise from the alarm rendered any possibility of recognising who it belonged to impossible. Whoever it was sounded like they were in need of help.

'Who is it?' Sarah yelled back.

With her lipstick in hand, Sarah flung her legs over the side of the bed, gingerly got up, and approached the door with her arms extended in order to feel her way through the dark.

'Sarah!'

Once again the voice was drowned out by the unbearable noise of the alarm.

'I'm coming!' she said while approaching the door, suddenly with great determination.

'KLANG!'

She immediately backed away again as a sharp and thundering crash landed against the other side of the wall. For a moment, all she felt was an overpowering sense of terror as she stood nailed to the floor in the center of the dark room.

'Steady on, Smith,' she ordered herself. 'Get a grip and open that door.'

As she stood there in the dark, attempting to regain control of her faculties, she was sure she heard people screaming. Smothered as they were, they were the unmistakable screams of people in severe terror and agony.

She didn't understand what had suddenly come over her. She had rarely lost her nerve in all the years she had been confronted by danger on a regular basis. 'People could be in mortal danger and you're standing here like a grazing cow.'

The screams grew and intensified with each second. Could it be something was chasing them?

Carefully, she closed in on the door yet again. She placed a shaking hand upon the frame before tentatively putting her left ear against it in the hope of hearing something other than the infernal wail of the alarm.

She inhaled deeply and with one swoop opened the heavy steel door...

Standing in the doorframe, she immediately scanned her surroundings. Nothing.

It was as if she had turned off the noise by opening the door. The corridor was empty and quiet. No alarm... no one yelling her name in desperation. She raised her left hand, expecting to see her watch around it. With groan, she remembered... Luke. 'Luke has it,' she remembered.

Dumbfounded by the situation, she began massaging her forehead.

'You've really gone off the deep end now,' she whispered to herself before letting out a soft but nervous chuckle.

Suddenly and violently, she was pulled back inside the room by a hand which had managed to snake itself around her waist, seemingly out of thin air.

As she was dragged bakwards, the door closed in front of her as if by its own accord. She wanted to scream but couldn't. Wanted to kick and free herself but was unable to. All she could do was gasp as she was pulled into a hole in the ground where an intense white light made her lose all consciousness.

'Sarah...,' a gentle voice whispered in her ear.

Once again, she awoke. Under circumstances more agreeable this time. The sound of birds and the feeling of warm soft sheets enveloped her with an overwhelming sense of peace. The hand around her waist was still there. But who... ?

'Sarah,' the voice repeated softly. A shiver ran through her body like wildfire. That voice. Unmistakable.

'Doctor,' she uttered, barely above a whisper. She felt the stinging of tears forming in her eyes as he replied.

'My Sarah Jane'.

There had been times in her life, years after their first farewell, when she had wondered whether the sound of his voice in her head was a memory or a fantasy. Surely that voice, so rich and commanding yet playful and sensual, couldn't have been real. Yet here it was, once again resounding in her ears.

She closed her eyes and sighed. 'What took you so long?'

She was afraid to face him. Afraid that he would disappear in front of her eyes should she turn around.

His temporary silence unnerved her instantly.

'Got caught up in things. You know how it goes, don't you?'

She simply nodded as a single tear escaped and trickled downwards to the pillow.

'Good girl,' he replied in a low husky pur that caused a tingle of pleasure to quickly blossom from every nerve in her body

'I miss you so much,' she breathed while attempting to even her breathing.

'I'm right here, Sarah.'

The warmth of his breath against her neck commanded her to look at him. Carefully she turned to her other side. There he lay. Exactly how she left him all those years ago. She was immediately struck by the intensity of his gaze as he quickly scanned her features. For a moment, she was convinced she could see his thoughts, thousands of them at once, flashing through his mind at the speed of light. Those eyes. There was a time when he could have  
asked her anything. One glimpse of those blue stargates and she was his. Always.

He gave her a lazy smile and raised his hand to her cheek, tracing patterns with his thumb. She returned the smile and locked her fingers with his.

'Were you reading my mind?'

He gave her an uneasy look and sighed before gently kissing her on the nose.

'This is your mind,' he replied dryly.

It suddenly hit her. The Vault... she was in the Vault right now. This was just dream. She closed her eyes as sadness overtook her.

'I'm still dreaming, aren't I?'

'Of course you are.' He offered a comforting smile. 'And you have to wake up now, Sarah.'

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

With the kids out of the house, Sarah decided it was time to take a closer look at the alien gadget the Doctor had given her in the garage.

She approached the Doctor's tweed blazer which still hung over the bannister, retrieved the odd but sleek looking device, and tip-toed into the sitting room as if she were about to open her Christmas present a day early.

As she sat down and inspected it more carefully, she quickly decided it couldn't be a sonic screwdriver like she had suspected earlier. It had the same overall shape as one... However, there was no emmitter or resonator... just one single activation button at the base. She once again carressed the smooth surface with her index finger, clutched it tightly, and raised her thumb... ready to press the inviting button.

'I shouldn't,' she warned herself as she grabbed the device with her other hand and carefully placed it atop the coffee table in front of her.

She stared at it from a safe distance while gently biting her bottom lip and shaking her head.

'Then again', she mused silently. 'Why would he give it to me if he didn't want me to find out what it was?'

She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it... sighing. Itching to know more about it as it lay there, daring her to pick it up.

She decided it was best left alone, stood up with a groan, headed towards the kitchen, and disappeared behind the wall. No more than three seconds later however, she came running back into the room...

'He knows what I'm like,' she fretted, loudly this time, as if she wanted him to hear her.

She grabbed tight hold of the device and without further consideration, pressed it...

'Argh!'

She yelp as something sharp extended through the button and into her hand, drawing blood in the process.

Letting the device fall onto the carpet, and immediately sucking her finger, she quickly bended down to one knee and picked it up again.

'I'll take that as a no, then,' she mumbled on her way towards the staircase.

She should have taken it up to the attic first thing, really. The Doctor counted on her. Still, it was on him... He knew how curious she was.

As she opened the door to the attic, and safely tucked away the device in a hidden drawer under her desk, she called for Mr. Smith, who immediately introduced himself with usual loudness.

'Perhaps I should do something about that after all,' she mumbled.

'Sarah Jane?'

'Oh, nothing, Mr. Smith, nothing.'

She closed in on the screen and placed her hands on her hips.

'I warned you we weren't done yet. This whole business with the Doctor... You know more about it.'

'Sarah jane, I...'

'Come on, let's have it,' she said sternly.

'I am not at liberty to divulge any information regarding either the device or the boxes which were delivered. It is strictly confidential.'

'You know about the boxes too?!' She gasped in a petulant manner, obviously irritated by her exclusion.

'These are merely safety precautions taken by the Doctor to protect you, Sarah Jane. Cooperation is advisable.'

'How am I supposed to cooperate if I don't know what's going on though,' she snapped back. 'My protection,' she huffed, well aware the computer was making a good deal of sense... The Doctor was up to something big, she could feel it. If her not knowing was important to a good outcome, she was more than willing to cooperate. Still, her investigative nature and instincts protested.

Mr. Smith remained silent as Sarah stood with her hands stuffed in her pockets, her back bent slightly forward, ready to outdo any excuse the computer threw at her.

'I have detected an unknown presence at the door, Sarah Jane.' Mr. Smith informed her instead.

Sure enough, the doorbell rang.

'I'll be back,' Sarah mumbled while heading over towards the door.

'Sarah Jane,' Mr. Smith offered. 'I advise extreme caution.'

Sarah nodded confusedly. Mr. Smith only advised caution when there was genuine danger. As a matter of fact, she felt he should do it more often...

If he bothered, the threat was serious.

* * *

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

'It adds up to more than what most people tend to think, you know. It's a little bit more complicated than gardening.' Dr. Julia Reid, the resident botanist informed the journalists while raising another steaming fork of something resembling stew to her lips.

'Don't worry, Dr. Reid, I am in absolute awe of both this place and your profession, and would never even consider to belittle its scientific value. Nor will I downplay the contribution you're making to the world in general down here,' Mark assured her.

Sarah didn't know whether to call it sleazy or absolutely adorable, but quickly decided on the latter as his awkwardness had already gotten the better of him several times during the last few hours. One thing was certain... when he complimented people, he meant it. And his respect for science of all areas seemed equally genuine. His sarcasm was often harsh at first glance, but it was softened by a silliness that made it easy to sense its lack of malice.

'It'll be nice to have some female company, I'm getting fed up being surrounded by these cavemen,' Reid told Marianne, who nodded in full agreement.

'I only bashed you on the head with a club and then dragged you into my grotto once. Don't you think it's time to let it go?' Dr. Lewis Seymour ribbed.

'See what I mean?' Reid mumbled while shaking her head and tossing her napking over Seymour's head.

Dinner went by slowly. It seemed as though they had all been sat around the table for days. Sarah gazed into the whirlpool she had created in her plate as her mind wandered back to the dream she had had earlier.

She used to have similar ones with alarming regularity, but by now had learned not to attach too much importance to them. After all, her dreams she use to have of the Doctor dying had held no merit either.

Then again, in many ways her Doctor had died, hadn't he? No. That was selfish and no way to approach the matter. He was still the same man... in a way. Though in most respects, he was different. It was complicated. Since her reunion with the Doctor at Deffrey Vale, the dreams had stopped.

So why did she have this one? Why now? Her daydreaming was interrupted by Mark, who poured some more water into her empty glass, and subsequently addressed Ramsey.

'If you don't mind my asking, Mr. Ramsey.' Mark began. 'Is there any way Sarah and I could get an audience with Dr. Karlsson?

'Where is he?' Ramsey asked Artie, who merely shrugged his shoulders and continued eating his dinner as Edison the parrot said lazily on his shoulder.

'Still in the Greenhouse I should think,' Seymour informed him. 'He's been down there working ever since you guys came back.'

'Must have been something you said,' Ramsey said while grinning across te table at the tree visitors.

'Good,' Mark mumbled in Sarah's direction before clearing his throat.

'He does seems very suspicious of us being here.' Sarah offered.

'It's nothing personal, I'm sure,' Reid informed her. 'If you want to pick his brain, you can do it tomorrow after our visit to the greenhouse. He has a habit of working late, so I doubt you'll be able to catch him today, especially with the new shipment.'

'Say what you will. He's been wired so tight lately, I get nervous when he enters the same room as me,' Artie said barely above a whisper. Ater a brief pause in which he wiped his mouth, he pointed his spoon at the floor and continued. 'Don't know why you're so eager to go down there. personally, I wouldn't want to... no sir. Not for...'

'Not for all the farms in Cuba,' Ramsey finished for the smaller man sitting beside him at the table.

Reid and Seymour smiled.

'Why?' Mark asked. Sarah couldn't help but smile at his genuine interest. He resembled a wide-eyed child at the beginning of a horror story. Filled with expectation.

'Don't encourage him,' Ramsey scoffed in contrast to Mark's gentler approach.

'Artie is very good at convincing himself of certain things on the basis of very little or no evidence whatsoever.'

Ramsey patted his colleague on the back while throwing his empty beercan in the nearby bin.

'You c-c-convince yourself of whatever gets you to fall asleep at place has bad karma,' Artie mumbled to himself.

'What is he talking about?' Marianne asked of the other team members who were either shaking their heads or smiling.

'Well, two years ago when this place was near completion...'

Semour began as if she were divulging the latest bit of gossip.

'Oh, here we go...,' Ramsey huffed.

'Let her finish, Rammer, the lady asked a question,' Reid protested as Ramsey looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.

'Well, apparently one of the construction workers just vanished. Never to be heard from again.'

'Apparently?' Sarah asked amusedly, though admittedly intrigued.

'Except...,' Semour continued. 'When the first team started working here, they would occasionaly spot someone they didn't know on the monitors...'

'Doing what?' Marianne asked.

'Just wandering around. They heard a voice on the intercom from time to time too.'

'Back then there were only twenty or so cameras installed.' Artie informed. 'Most of that crew went crazy in this place. One of them even started attacking the others...'

'This is a joke, right?' Mark asked.

'I wish,' Artie replied. 'When their team got relieved after just six weeks, they were ready for the funny farm.'

'Paaaaaaassword,' Edison squawked suddenly.

'Subsequently,' Artie continued... 'The Powers That Be wanted better surveillance and less people to work here...'

'That' why Argus was installed,' Sarah finished for him.

Artie nodded.

'So... Have any of you seen this phantom yourselves?' Mark enquired dryly.

Ramsey snorted while rolling his eyes.

'Mark smiled. 'I'll take that as a...'

BANG! The conversation was interrupted by a mighty boom right next to them. As edison fluttered upwards towards the roof in a sudden state of panic, the other seven occupants of the kitchen shot up from their seats.

'What the hell!' Ramsey grunted as a pillar of smoke arose from behind the microwave. He quickly headed towards the appliance and immediately pulled the plug.

'Edison, come down. It's alright, boy,' Artie begged his winged friend.

Sarah attempted to calm herself as everyone's focus shifted towards the bird. She was wound so tight even the slightest sudden noise would have made her heart skip, never mind kitchenware exploding around her.

As Artie and Ramsey managed to lure Edison back down, Mark approached her with a look of deep concern.

'Are you alright?' he asked. 'That was quite something, wasn't it? I nearly wet myself'

He feigned embarrassment and Sarah loved him for it.

She offered a grateful smile. 'I'm fine, thanks.'

The rest of the night went by a lot faster. She had to admit that for the most part, the team was enjoyable company and both Dr's Holden and Seymour were women she felt a kinship to. Both of them had sacrificed a lot in their life in the name of scientific pursuit and had rarely stayed in the same place for longer than a year. It was something she was confronted with time and time again. Her attraction to people who never stayed at the fair. Those with that same habitual and incurable case of wanderlust she so admired in the Doctor.

During the course of the evening, she had caught herself looking at Mark on more than one occasion. They way his eyes widened when someone said something that peaked his interest. The way he slowly raked his curls back with his fingers. Every time she noticed similarities between him an her Doctor she felt a stab of guilt. Like she was cheating on someone... no matter how ridiculous that would have sounded had she said it out loud. But cheating someone or something at least. Herself probably. Still she couldn't help but feel drawn to him.

'It's late,' Reid yawned. 'I'm off to get some kip.'

'We should all do that, I think,' Ramsey informed the rest of the group. 'Busy day ahead'.

As they wandered back to their sleeping quarters, Sarah lagged behind the rest of the group in order to collect her thoughts.

She felt worried about Luke and Sky after the incident in the kitchen, and hoped that they wouldn't blow up the house. Where other mothers might worry their children would trash the place while partying, she had to consider Sky and Luke may feel the need to update modern physics in her attic and destroy their home as well as greater London in the process. Luke was careful and had always showed uncanny responsibility along with his alien intelligence. Sky on the other hand, was stubborn and eager to prove herself. A dangerous combination when paired whith her abilities.

'No, no,' she mused. 'They'll be fine... K9 and Mr. Smith are there,' she reassured herself.

As she turned a corner, she caught a glimpse of an undidentifiable figure hurrying his way through an adjacent corridor.

Her heart stopped.

With the rest of the group disappearing from sight, her investigative instincts took control and the urge to follow those instincts overrode her common sense. Without so much as a minute of consideration, she silently tip toed towards where she'd seen the figure.

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

She half-opened the front door, practicing the caution Mr. Smith had recommended. She was faced with a tall blonde, thirty-ish woman, impeccably dressed in a tight black tailored suit, and dark green suede heels that matched her eyes.

'A lawyer type... or perhaps a sales representative,' Sarah decided inwardly. The kind who never blink and leave a trail of cold bodies on their tunnel-visioned path to promotion. A predator.

She didn't bat a smoky eyelash nor moved her blood-red lips as she approached the door and closed in on Sarah. Neither did she introduce herself or bothered to state her reason for being there.

'Sarah Jane Smith,' the tall woman stated in a dry, almost chilly manner while focusing her steely gaze on Sarah's.

Sarah frowned and nodded questioningly.

'That's me.'

'I'm afraid I have some regrettable news, Mrs. Smith,' the woman proclaimed in a jumbled, almost unidentifiable accent.

'That's Miss Smith, dolly,' Sarah mused as she pressed her lips tightly together and swiftly decided to let it pass.

'May I enter?'

After a second or two of subtle hesitation, Sarah motioned for the woman to come into the house.

'Of course,' she added, attempting to sound casual.

'What's the regrettable news then?' she enquired whilst leading her guest through the hall and into the sitting room.

'Do sit down,' Sarah added.

The predator slowly lowered herself onto the edge of the couch, swung one leg over the other, and subsequently locked her cold stare onto Sarah while clasping her hands around her top knee.

'It would seem as though some unfortunate catastrophe took place in the Global Biota Repository, Mrs. Smith,' the woman informed her evenly.

Sarah's spine tightened as a sudden pang of panic shot upwards through her entire system.

The predator's features were unreadable, and yet, through her business-like facade, one could have easily interpreted her feigned look of concern as a failed attempt to repress a sardonic, almost lugubrious sense of pleasure and satisfaction. Or perhaps it was anger, and her pleasure was mostly fed by Sarah's sudden and apparent discomfort.

'I'm so sorry, I seem to have lost your name,' Sarah informed with feigned ease while remaining standing between the predator and the kitchen door.

'That's because I neglected to share it, Sarah Jane,' she replied in a manner so smarmy and disingenuous, it nearly prompted Sarah's gut to turn.

'Veronica Krauss. On behalf of my father Edmund, the founder of Krauss International, I wish to extend my apologies concerning what happened during your visit.'

'The oil baron... What does he have to do with this...,' Sarah pondered

'Must have been quite an ordeal, Mrs. Smith,' the predator whispered in an almost supernaturally suggestive fashion.

Sarah stuffed her hands into her pockets while thinking of a proper reply and simultaneously clearing her throat as a momentary silence arose.

'Can I offer you something, Miss. Krauss? Tea, coffee,...'

'Water would be most kind, Mrs. Smith,' she replied swiftly and desperately, as if suddenly on the verge of dehydration.

With a frown, Sarah fled to the kitchen and instantly conducted a bodysearch on herself in an attempt to find her sonic lipstick. This woman was here for something other than an apology. 'Krauss International, Krauss International,... Was Edmund Krauss the money behind the Vault?'

'Where is it?' she muttered silently in search of her lipstick.

Heading over towards the fridge in a panic and retrieving a bottle of water, she ordered her own composure.

'If I may ask, Miss. Kraus...,' Sarah began while pouring water into a glass. 'What does your father's oil company have to do with the Global Biota?'

'He funded its construction, Mrs. Smith,' the predator replied, suddenly standing at arm's length from Sarah as she turned around.

Startled to the core, Sarah dropped the glass to the floor, which landed with a loud and hight-pitched crash, before backing away from Krauss.

She had been right. Edmund Krauss was the man behind the curtain... But what did it have to do with her? Surely she had been just as much a victim. She had nearly died while he had been safe.

'Now, If I may ask Mrs. Smith,' the predator deadpanned while closing the distance between them. 'How is it that one woman could not only escape, but welcome me into her home the day after as if nothing had happened to her whatsoever? How coud that be...,' she dragged her words in a threathening manner.

'Unless of course, it had been carefully planned,' she suddenly snapped.

'Excuse me?!' Sarah demanded.

'Now, I will only ask this once,' she threatened. 'Where... are... the pods?' Her tone was so cold and calculated, it held a near hypnotic quality.

'Miss. Krauss,' Sarah began as the predator closed her eyes and shook her head, suddenly looking possessed.

The predator opened her mouth, though not to speak this time. As she parted her lips, something in her throat which resembled a rubbery cable, extended towards Sarah with the swiftness of an arrow...

As she attempted to duck and crawl out of harm's way, it still manged to snaked itself around her neck, clasping it so tight she immediately felt as though her windpipe was on the verge of being snapped in half. She lay contorted against the fridge like a fly caught in a web, attempting to free herself.

The predator's eyes began potruding, increasing in circumferance and growing more bloodshot and horrific as the pressure she exercized on Sarah's neck also intensified. It was almost as though she was somehow sucking the oxygen from Sarah's lungs in an attempt to blow her eyes up like two balloons that would eventually go splat.

For a moment she thought she was dreaming when she heard the sound of her sonic lipstick.

That was untill Krauss' 'tongue' retreated into her pretty face and her eyes remodified themselves from golfball size to acceptable... at least according to human convention.

Both Sarah and Krauss glanced at the doorway simultaneously. There stood a tall man with wild curly hair and bright blue eyes... in his boxers.

He aimed the sonic lipstick at Krauss while a maniacal grin slowly appeared on his face.

'Housecall,' he said while pressing the button.

It's familiar tone soon mingled with penetrating witch-like screams as Krauss crouched to her knees, huddled up like a turtle, and then, jumped through the window like a grasshopper, shattering the glass on her way... It fell to the floor with an echoeing clatter, and then... silence.

Sarah released a tremulous sigh of relief as she looked at the Doctor. He was smiling proudly... Some humanoid reptile-like blonde had just attempted to wring her neck, and he stood there smiling like a child at the fair, ready to collect his teddy bear.

'You should be in bed,' she said, her breath still uneven.

* * *

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

Sarah recalled the story Dr. Seymour had told them earlier as she chased the figure through the dimly-lit corridors. Perhaps this phantom wasn't just a figment of the imagination after all. She reconsidered that thought and quickly decided it was silly. How could anyone survive here for that long without ever borrowing some milk or sugar?

Slowly, she closed in on a corner and remained there. A screetching sound, like a chair being dragged across the floor resounded nearby. Very nearby.

With her heart pounding in her chest, she reached for her sonic lipstick. She was never like the Doctor in that regard. She had to be prepared for the worst in a situation like this. After all, he could afford to let curiousity get the better of him and pay the price with a life afterwards. She couldn't.

She inhaled deeply and carefully peeked around the corner.

'Karlsson,' she mouthed silently.

Dr. Karlsson was crouched down over a hole in the floor which she guessed was a safe of some sort. Relieved that it was him, she watched as he lowered the black box he had held on his person from the first moment she had seen him into the square hole. Her concentration was suddenly disrupted by footsteps behind her. She kep her eyes ahead knowing all too well someone was silently approaching her. The illusion of time standing still once again established itself.

She turned around and gasped in surprise.

Relieved to find standing behind her, fingers on his lips to shush her, she closed her eyes and supressed a loud sigh of mounting tension.

For a second it felt as though she was being bathed in relief.

'I thought we'd lost you. You shouldn't wander off like this, you could get lost,' he whispered in a worried tone whilst boring into her soul with his gaze.

For a moment, she wanted to kiss him. The sudden excitement of investigation combined with his presence made her feel... ecstatic. She quickly regained her senses, broke eyecontact, and pointed at Karlsson, who by now was locking the safe and closing the floorlid.

'What is he doing?' Mark enquired casually.

Sarah put a finger to his lips, grabbed him by the hand and led him back towards where the sleeping quarters were. After having reached a sufficient distance between them and Karlsson, Sarah quickly explained what she had seen.

'What do you think is in it?' Mark asked, obviously intrigued and excited.

'No idea,' Sarah replied. 'But if I were to hazard a guess, I would say he's probably smuggling something in, no?'

'Or out?' Mark offered.

Suddenly she chuckled in amusement at their presumptions and shrugged her shoulders.

'Or he could just be doing his job.'

Mark raised an eyebrow and gave her a playful grin.

'Don't look at me like that. This place hasn't exactly had a relaxing effect on me,' Sarah fretted. 'I have to be objective and add up the facts before I start accusing people based on so little evidence. Not even evidence. I mean, I just happened to see him put a box in a safe. Not exactly unusual for a scientific facility, is it?' She proposed.

'Of course. Ridiculous to make unsubstantiated conclusions. Also, we're not policemen. we were sent here merely to report,' Mark said before both started nodding in silent unison.

'We'll see what we can find out tomorrow,' Sarah offered after a brief moment of silence.

'Yeah.'

They shared a slightly awkward moment wherein nothing was said... only uncomfortable smiles and nodds.

'You are quite something,' Sarah thought to herself as a wide grin appeared on his face.

'Very well. Goodnight then,' she said while opening the heavy door to her room and disappearing inside.

* * *

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

His expression changed from happy to bleak as she stood up and approached him, causing her to halt abruptly. He looked as though he'd seen a ghost...

Clumsily shuffling into the livingroom, he dropped himself onto the nearest couch, attempting to ease his suddenly uneven breathing.

She rushed to his side and cleared a few stray curls from his face.

'Sarah please, I...' he began muttering.

'Yes, yes, you're fine, of course you are,' she interrupted sarcastically while placing her hand on her forehead. It was chilly. Normal for him.

'No, I feel dreadful,' he said matter-of-factly.

'Probably the sudden rush of adrenaline,' she mumbled as she grabbed a spread from the next couch and put it around him.

He looked down at the stitched up wounds on his upper chest and huffed contemptuously, no doubt directed at the idea of guns.

'Humans. Always ready and able to make unnecessary suffering even more messy and gruesome,' he pondered aloud. 'I'm surprised you don't shoot meat cleavers from rotary cannons... Now that would make a mess worthy of your primitive ambitions.'

Despite the insult, Sarah couldn't help but smile.

'Insults can cause more pain than superficial wounds, Doctor,' she informed him dryly.

For a moment, he looked at her in way that made her feel slightly uncomfortable... as if he was suddenly nervous being there beside her...

'I've gotten old, I know,' she thought to herself.

She had changed, yes. She wouldn't let him pushe her around anymore, no. Perhaps that was too much for him to take, was it? It was some act of rebellion against him. Neither was she trying to prove anything. More than three decades... that's all it was. Nearly fourty years, that's all it was.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

'Are you happy, Sarah?'

She was dumbfounded by the question. First of all, the very fact that he would bother to ask came as a surprise. The years after they had parted, she had occasionally permitted herself to ponder on the 'What Ifs' of their relationship. Sometimes... just sometimes, that 'what if...' preceded the words '...he had been human?'.

What if he had been an ordinary man? Did she feel this attraction solely because he was something extraordinary? Because he was something exotic and genius and incomprehendible? Or would she, in the event that they had crossed paths on a random street somewhere, have fallen in love with this man if he had been, although similar, just a physicist from Cambridge, a shoolteacher from Liverpool, or a garbageman from London?

That's how she tortured herself for months and years afterwards.

She would be lying to herself had she claimed those days were long gone. Because the question had survived the years. It reared its painful head less frequently... but it was there. There were days, when the answer was a simple, sure, and slightly angry 'Yes!'... Those days, the fact that he was or had been one of the Doctor's lifecycles, seemed unfair. Because those days, all she wanted was him. The one sitting next to her. She loved all of his models and their personalities. They were like uncles, old flames, and even, in an odd way sons. But he... Well, there was no sense in beating around the bush. He was the love of her life.

Being with him again now, reminded her just how non-human her Doctor had always been. That her own needs and wishes simply did not correspond with who he was or could ever be... and worst of all, that he was meant to be temporary. That he was too brilliant and wild and curious and everything at the same time to not change several times or burn up long before she would ever stop loving him. They had all been like that. He had always been like that. Too fast to keep up with.

She barely managed to supress a sob as she answered his uncharachteristic question.

'Yes,' she smiled. 'I'm happy.'

No reaction. He simply remained seated with his head back and his eyes closed.

'And I am very happy that you're here,' she began while reaching for his hand. '

After all this time, I had convinced myself I would never see you again. Well... Not this you anyway... Doctor, I...'

Her dialogue was abruptly broken off as he shot op to his feet. Eyes widening and mouth grinning.

'Aaaaaah!' he cried as he raised a finger and patted himself on the head.

Sarah stared at him in confusion... and slight annoyance...

'Well, I'm glad you're doing fine, Sarah,' she mumbled sarcastically.

'Yaxwinik!' he exclaimed victoriously. 'Oh Sarah, I should have known...'

'Yaxwinik,' she repeated confusedly.

He turned and kneeled in front of her.

'I need your help, girl,' he said in that husky tone that made her body ache, his mouth slightly open and his eyes begged for assurance.

'Damn you and your voice,' she thought as she pressed her lips together and nodded casually.

'Of course.'

He smiled happily. Not his demented grin, but that lazy smile he gave when he was happy and content.

He grabbed her hand and locked his fingers with hers.

Their hands always found each other.


	5. Chapter 5

**My apologies that it has taken such a long long time for me to update, but I simply didn't have the time. After having received some very kind PM's and replies, I was intent on finishing this. Having a lot more time during the following weeks, I should be able to complete this before too long. Hope some of you are still up for it... Here we go.**

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Silently, Sarah wandered up the final stairs towards the attic, pushed open the door, and leaned against its frame. She did her outmost to maintain a neutral expression despite being immediately overwhelmed by a warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest upon seeing the Doctor in the clothes Luke and Sky had provided for him.

Perhaps for the first time ever, she noticed just how much his usual eccentric attire added to his otherworldliness. Looking at him now, dressed in more 'acceptable' gear, she couldn't help but almost mistake him for a human man. Perhaps it was merely wishful thinking. The slightly tighter and altogether better fitting grey tweed trousers with regular tucked in white shirt proved to be, judging by his backside, quite flattering.

He had however, taken liberties with one particular memento from their travels, which somewhat succeeded in neutralising the mundanity of the outfit, and reminding her that no matter what exterior, he woulds always be up to the same old silly tricks. The gas mask from Skaro, which had hung untouched next to her desk for years, had found its way onto his face. As soon as he turned around to reveal that it was hanging upside down, she burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, prompting the Doctor to freeze and stand victim to her gentle mockery as she pointed towards his face.

'Evening, Mistress,' K9 greeted, wiggling his tail as he approached a giggling Sarah Jane.

'Good evening, Sarah Jane,' Mr. Smith echoed monotonously. 'You'll be pleased to learn that…,'

'Well, you're the one who bought them for me!' the Doctor interrupted sternly, his voice muted to a robotic tone by the mask. He pointed at his outfit, clearly unamused, like a small boy throwing a tantrum when forced to wear something respectable against his wishes.

'This is identity theft!'

'Don't be so childish,' Sarah managed in between giggles.

'I look like an office clerk!'

'Well, I think you look lovely,' she said softly as her laughter subsided.

He placed his hands in his grey tweed pockets and gazed down at the wooden floorboards solemnly, just like he had done that very morning, when he had worn different clothes, but more importantly, a different body.

'You really think it's such a good idea to be up on your feet this long? You've been up here for more than two hours. After we taped off the kitchen window, I told you get dressed and relax, not to begin a session of intense research.'

She approached him with her arms outstretched, ready to rid his face from the disturbing mask that prevented her from seeing his bright blue eyes.

'**_This_** is what I was laughing at. Rather defeats the purpose when you wear it the wrong side up, doesn't it?' she said as she gently slid the mask over his curls and held it in front of him just as he had worn it.

'Oh. Well, how did that get there?' he answered playfully.

The smile he gave her nearly caused her knees to buckle. If she had known in advance that smile was coming, she would have looked elsewhere. She would have tried her hardest to avoid it.

She would have retreated to a safe distance where the brightness of his eyes and the warmth of his lazy smile wouldn't have been so overwhelmingly enjoyable to her. Anywhere but right in front of him, close enough to feel his every breath. Close enough for him to hear her heartbeat quicken.

She hoped against all odds that she wasn't blushing, and backed away from him. As soon as she put down the mask on the desk, he broke the uncomfortable silence which had suddenly manifested itself, yet was probably only uncomfortable to _her_. To a human. That thought provided her with relief as well as sadness. She turned to face him once again.

'Mr. Smith, K9, and I have been doing some research regarding Krauss International, haven't we, Mr. Smith?'

'Indeed we have, Doctor.'

Frowning, Sarah took her place next to the Doctor, who was smiling broadly at her computer.

'I must say, I find this Doctor to be a considerable upgrade over the other one, Sarah Jane.'

'While this Master and future regeneration differ in appearance, both are in fact… one.'

'Oh, go chase your tail,' Mr. Smith replied calmly.

'You like this one better because he hasn't decided to tinker with you,' Sarah said blankly. 'Yet.'

'I don't see why he would require any alterations. I like him just the way he is.'

'Thank you, Doctor.' Mr. Smith replied kindly, causing Sarah to roll her eyes and cross her arms impatiently.

'So… Krauss International?' she asked.

'Just as I assumed, Sarah,' the Doctor replied swiftly, shifting both his mood and expression from playful to deadly serious in a blink of her eyes.

'Yax…' Sarah attempted.

'Yaxwinnik. Quite.'

Mr. Smith remained silent when Sarah glanced at him, clearly expecting an extra word of information to follow. The computer offered nothing more.

'Where,' Sarah began tremulously, worried by the sudden mood swing of both aliens. 'Where do they come from?'

'No one knows, Sarah.'

'I was unable to detect a planet or period of origin in my databanks, Sarah Jane,' the computer added.

'I didn't expect otherwise, Mr. Smith, it's alright. The Yaxwinnik's exact origins are a mystery even to the greatest minds of Gallifrey.'

Even after all these years she could sense his deep concern by the curve of his mouth and the way he slightly lifted his head and stared off into the distance whenever he knew danger was peeping through the keyhole. True danger.

'But you know them, yes?'

He smiled at her again. Or rather, attempted to.

'What is it?' she asked in a barely audible whisper.

'I've heard stories, that's all,' he shrugged slowly. 'Who knows whether they are even true.'

He rubbed his forehead and raked a few stray curls back with his fingers. Something she had always enjoyed watching, yet now seemed like an affirmation of serious trouble. Once again he stared at the floorboards. He looked tired. More tired then she had ever seen him. But there was something more. A sadness she couldn't help but interpreted as deep regret, or shame even.

'He feels guilty about something,' she decided silently.

'What kind of stories?' she asked, temporarily kicking the thought aside.

He slowly walked over to her desk and eased himself down into the chair, sighing heavily as he leaned his head back, only to gaze at her as if he was surprised to see her. As if she hadn't been standing there talking to him the whole time.

'Doctor?' Sarah asked softly.

'Erm… The Yaxwinnik, according to legend, are a parasitic and nomadic species older than even the Timelords, always described as humanoids with reptile-like attributes. Some cultures throughout the cosmos believe that the Yaxwinnik have, over time, slowly infested so many planets throughout the universe, that the majority of intelligent life that was once out there, is now long extinct because of them.'

'Some kind of alien plague then.'

He nodded.

'One could put it as bluntly as that I suppose, yes.'

'Do you believe it?' she asked.

'I'm not sure, Sarah. I've never been forced to even consider it before. I could be wrong, I often am.'

They both knew that wasn't true. He was wrong about little things. Constantly. But rarely when so many lives were at stake.

'You think it's them, don't you? Be honest.'

He simply nodded.

'Then why now? What makes you think they have anything to do with what happened in the Vault?'

'Because of their strategy. By all accounts…,'

'Rumors you mean,' she interrupted.

The glare he gave her was most unagreeable initially, but quickly morphed into a look of proud agreement. After all, she was the one taking the rational and critical approach, not him. He was making assumptions based on stories he had heard throughout the many years of his Timelord life, accounts of the so called truth told and re-told here and there.'

'According to rumor,' he corrected with a grin, 'They scavenge the universe for less intelligent but extremely aggressive alien life, and then deploy it on the desired planet. All they have to do then is simply wait for the original inhabitants to die at the hands of whatever hostile species teh Yaxwinnik dropped on their heads. They have poisoned, choked, burned, drowned and buried any species that stood in their way without so much as a warning.'

'Like some kind of inter-species biological warfare?' Sarah asked carefully. 'They bottle a lethal-to-the-inhabitants life form of their choosing and just sit back without getting their hands dirty, is that what you mean?

'Exactly!' he grinned unexpectedly. It wasn't amusing by any means, she thought.

'And we both know which species they had in mind to rid grandmother earth of its children, don't we, Sarah?'

She swallowed hard.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

When boarding the elevator, they were immediately greeted by Argus' robotic tones.

'Boarding: Ramsey, Holden, Smith, Turner. Four identified passengers. Zero guests. Welcome.'

As the door slid shut in front of them, an uncomfortable feeling once again settled in Sarah's stomach.

'Destination Greenhouse,' Argus informed as Sarah began watching the numbers go down.

'Argus,' Ramsey said blankly. 'Enable intercom.'

Minus five, minus nine, minus sixteen, minus eighteen,… Her eyes couldn't keep up with the numbers on the small screen.

'This thing goes at quite a lick,' she thought.

'Yes, Edward,' Argus replied.

A distinctive beep resounded throughout the elevator.

'Intercom enabled.'

'How long will it take before we get down there?' Sarah asked.

'Have you seen Karlsson this morning, Artie?' Ramsey asked while pushing a few buttons on the control panel next to the door, ignoring Sarah's question as he did so.

'Artie?' he repeated.

The Scotsman let out a heavy sigh while pushing some buttons that caused a small hologram to appear in front of them. Or rather, an intended hologram…

'Five quid says he's playing that blasted pinball machine,' Ramsey fumed underneath his breath.

'Artie!'

As soon as the name had escape his lips, the tiny man with the glasses appeared in front of them, albeit miniaturised.

'Paaaaaaaaaaaaaasswoooooord,' the parrot on his left shoulder squawked.

'Be quiet, Edison,' Artie order as he pushed his glasses up is nose and addressed Ramsey.

'What is it?'

'Have you seen Karlsson yet?'

'I haven't, no,' the little man answered while offering his bird some treats. 'Wasn't he supposed to be joining you?'

'That was the plan, yes.' Ramsey huffed.

Sarah looked at Mark for a reaction. 'Odd, wouldn't you say?' He whispered in her ear.

She nudged him in the ribs and snorted, which in turn evoked an irritated look from Ramsey.

'He probably overslept,' Mark said, clearly unconvinced of his own statement. 'Has he ever done anything this odd before?'

'Shut up!' Marianne snapped.

'Excuse me,' Mark apologized, taken aback by Marianne's sudden bluntness.

'No. No…' the biologist whispered. 'Listen.'

For a moment, all went quiet.

'I don't hear any-'

'Shhh! Listen!'

Above their heads, a faint, yet distinctive sound, not unlike a rhumba of rattlesnakes, began to grow ever louder, prompting every passenger to look upwards at the ceiling of the elevator.

'Is that part of the tour?' Marianned asked.

The frown on Ramsey's face turned into a look of utter confusion as the lift halted abruptly, sending a tremor through their bodies, illiciting a few yelps.

'I guess that's a no,' Mark said nervously, grabbing onto the railing while straightening his legs.

Suddenly a low hum, almost like a dryer spinning, made itself known. Slowly but surely, the led lights on the electronics died, almost like something had begun draining their power.

'Argus!' Ramsey ordered. 'Argus!'

Never one to bother with the scenic route, Ramsey skipped the usual calm approach practiced by air hostesses, and simply yelled into the intercom, fuming with anger.

'You lot really need to be relieved of your posts,' Sarah thought. Never before had she met such a gathering of stressed out, short-fused, and quite frankly, unstable personalities in charge of such important matters.

The power drain continued, and before too long, the four passengers found themselves staring at utter darkness.

Suddenly Sarah felt Mark shaking next to her. He was probably afraid. For a moment she was worried and grabbed hold of his shoulder.

'Mark? Are you okay?'

It wasn't fear that made him quiver. Clearly he was having trouble containing fits of laughter.

'You're incredibly unprofessional, you realise that?' she whispered, grateful that no one could see her smile. Before too long too, she couldn't help herself and let out a chuckle as well.

'Is this standard protocol?' Marianne asked dryly before joining Sarah in a fit of giggles.

'I'll have you know that we are currently hanging nearly twelve hundred feet above our destination, ladies,' Ramsey informed them.

The giggling stopped. More due to the tone of his voice than out of fear however. He was clearly pissed off and ready to smack someone 'round the side of the head.

'And with no means of rescue if we don't get the power back up and running, I might add.'

A flashlight switched on, nearly blinding Sarah. As her vision normalized, she could see Ramsey typing a code into the control panel before he switched the light back on.

'Too bad an expensive hologram of a technician can't help us,' Mark mumbled. 'That's not to criticize your priorities investment-wise in any way shape or form of course.'

A low zoom was immediately followed by Argus' voice.

'Secondary power unit enabled' He informed.

A collective sigh of relief resounded through the lift.

'Argus,' Ramsey began.

'Yes, Edward,' the artificial intelligence responded.

'Give me a status update on lift H4. Why are we stuck?'

'Status update H4' Argus repeated. 'Elevator active. Currently descending towards Greenhouse 1. Number of identified passengers aboard: Four. Ramsey, Holden, Smith, Turner.'

The computer paused for a moment.

'Loading update,' It continued.

Ramsey sighed. 'Come on!'

'And the difference between this and Windows Vista is...?' Mark asked.

Ramsey gave the control panel a violent tap.

'Guests loading,' Argus continued.

'There aren't any guests, Argus, get on with it!'

'Unidentified guests: ONE'

'Argus, there are no guests in the lift, get on with that status report! Why are we stuck? Why has the elevator stopped?'

'Correction, Edward. There are four identified passengers and one guest. I strongly advise immediate identification of all guests as dictated by security protocol.'

Without further warning, the snake-like rattle and hiss above their heads took center stage once more. Instantly, the elevator began to grumble and wobble, as if it was being kicked and shaken about by an external force, causing the passengers to grapple for something to hold onto.

Sarah desperately reached for her lipstick as she tried to remain upright in the downward floundering cage, holding on to the wall as much as possible as she did so. Going by the behavior of the elevator, a fall into the deep seemed like a real possibility.

'Oh dear,' Mark sighed.

'Argus!' Ramsey exclaimed.

His aggressive cry was the last thing Sarah heard before she felt the floor underneath her feet suddenly drop. Before she knew it, they were in near free fall, desperately pushing against the walls in a useless attempt to stay safe. As they sat huddled against the floor of the racing elevator, eyes tightly shut, forgetting to breathe, panicking, then screaming in the darkness as the lights once again died.

Clutching her lipstick, Sarah undid the top and pointed it toward the control panel. For a moment, it seemed as though time stood still. As she heard the characteristic sound of the handy gadget, all she could think of were Luke and Sky… and then him, smiling at her, as if everything was alright. As if everything had always been and would always be alright.

'Look into my eyes,' he said, gently touching her cheeks in an attempt to hypnotize her. It was a random memory. Useless, but oh so comforting. For a moment all she could see were those two bright blue eyes.

As soon as the invisible sonic beam hit the panel, the lights lit up. Binary codes running across the screen at the same speed they were falling down to their death.

'Please,' she breathed.

As if giving in to her wishes, the cage once again began to wobble, and everything slowed down. She eased herself against the wall and hid her lipstick while attempting to even her breathing. As the elevator resumed its normal behavior, she thought about the three people she loved most.

It couldn't have taken more than thirty seconds before they reached their destination and the doors opened up as if nothing had happened.

Welcome to Green-neen-neen-een...' Sparks began flying from the control panel as the whole system short-circuited and the lift filled up with smoke.

'Greeeeeeeeeeeeeenhouuuuuuuuuuse' Argus finished in a deformed, oscillated tone.

They coughed and moaned their way out of the lift, and sat down in the corridor against the opposite wall.

'Christ, what was that,' Marianne fretted, still in shock.

Mark took Sarah's hand and smiled. 'Sarah Jane Smith. Saviour of our bacon.' He removed a few stray hairs from her face and proceeded to scan her entire body.

'Are you alright?' He asked concernedly.

She nodded silently.

'Let me guess,' he breathed. 'Quite used to crashing elevators?'

She chuckled softly.

'First time for everything,' she said.

'You lot alright?' Mark asked Marianne and Ramsey.

'Twisted my ankle but I'll be fine.' Marianne replied.

'Let me take a look,' Mark offered gently as he crouched down beside her.

'Can you stand on it?' Sarah asked gently.

'Doubt it,' Marianned answered, clearly disappointed and slightly miffed.

'We should get her back up to the Hub, I don't think she'll be doing any sightseeing,' Sarah suggested while raising herself up.

Ramsey too lifted himself from the floor, and immediately headed for the heavy doors at the end of the corridor. 'Seymour!' he yelled before returning to the small gathering in front of the lift.

'I'm not going back up in that thing,' Marianne protested.

'Of course not' Mark said dryly. 'Neither am I'.

'Don't worry, there's more than one, we'll get you up in another -'

_**WHROOOSH! **_

Before he had time to finish his sentence, he hit the floor face down, and was pulled back into the elevator, a trail of blood spurting from his nose, prompting the others to cry out in terror and jump backwards against the wall.

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared in the smoke-ridden elevator and upwards towards its roof, his screams of agony mingling with the snake-like hisses.

'Edward!' Mark cried as he went in after him and attempted to pull him free from whatever had him in its clutches.

This time, Sarah didn't hesitate, she grabbed her lipstick and aimed blindly into the lift. Catching a glimpse of Ramsey, she was shocked to see him pulled all the way up to the elevator's ceiling, his body wrapped inside several green plantlike tentacles.

From the moment she laid eyes upon the green leathery tentacles, sounds and memories unravelled in her head

_'You depend upon us for the air you breathe and the food you eat...' _

_ 'The car is immaterial…'_

_ 'Take care, I noticed a little Greenfly here and there.'_

_ 'Miss. Smith will be our subject…'_

'_Krynoid,_' she whispered while shaking her head in disbelief.

'Sarah, help me!' Mark cried as he tried desperately tried to pull Ramsey down.

She pressed the button on her sonic.

As soon as the sound resonated in the lift. The tentacles pushed both Sarah and Mark away from the elevator and sent them flying against the opposite wall.

As soon as its 'arms' were fully retreated into the elevator, the doors slid shut and the lift took off.

Sarah looked at Marianne, who by now, had fainted.

Mark ran towards the double doors which led to the greenery. 'Seymour! Reid!' Attempting to push the doors open, he quickly realized they were locked.

'Seymour! We need help!'

As Sarah attempted to wake Marianne up, she heard Mark attempting to kick down the door.

'Use this!' She threw him her sonic. 'Point and press.'

As quickly as he aimed the lipstick at the door and soniced the lock, Argus' voice resounded throughout the corridor.

'Access granted'.

With a loud bang, the doors were pushed open from the inside of the greenery, knocking Mark down onto his back. Without a moment of hesitation a flurry of green tentacles slithered into the corridor and headed straight towards him, causing Sarah to gasp in horror.

As quickly as she could, she scattered towards Mark, and helped him to his feet.

There was no time to lose.

'We need to get back up NOW!' Sarah cried as Krynoid closed in on them and they helped Marianne into another elevator before closing the door behind them.

'Marianne, wake up,' Sarah cried while patting the biologist's cheeks.

'Are we sure about this? If there are more of those things in this elevator shaft as well, we won't make it,' Mark breathed.

'I'll check,' Sarah said while pointing up at the lid in the ceiling.

'Alright, get up, I'll give you a lift.' Mark replied while handing her back her lipstick.

'Careful' Mark said as Sarah tried to balance herself on his shoulders and reached for the little door above her head.

There were no bolts or locks. Carefully, she lifted the lid and peeked through the opening as best as she could.

'I don't see anything. We have to try.' Sarah said calmly.

'What about Ramsey?'

'There's nothing we can, not from her, we're trapped ourselves. I think it would be best for us to get back up to the Hub and see what we can do from there.'

Mark nodded in agreement.

'Besides, we have to get Marianne to safety as well.'

Sarah climbed back down and reached for the button on the control panel.

'Yeah?' she asked. 'If the Krynoid in the hallway get into this shaft we could be dead sooner than we think. They will try to pull us down. What do you say?'

'Elevator going up,' Mark answered blankly.

Without further ado, Sarah pushed the button and the elevator began moving upwards.

**Bannerman Road **

**Present**

'Veronica Krauss,' Sarah began. 'She came here for the pods. Why would she think I have them? Why would she think I would want those things in my possession?'

The Doctor smiled.

'You've made a name for yourself over the last few years, Sarah. The rest of the universe is no different to earth where rumours are concerned, and news, whether true to exaggerated, travels fast.'

Sarah looked at him questioningly.

'Oh, use your brain, Sarah,' he sneered, temporarily wounding her pride. 'If you harboured any malevolent intentions towards earth wouldn't you attempt to get rid of its main defenses? Especially if that defense has experience dealing with certain intergalactic pests.'

'Including the Krynoid,' Sarah added.

'Exactly. You're known as one of Earth's primary guards. You're a likely suspect…'

'But then why was I invited there in the first place? If they were worried about me interfering, why would they put me right smackdab in the middle of their arsenal?'

The Doctor stared at her devoid of emotion, as if he already knew all the answers and was merely waiting for her to ask the right questions. It unsettled her deeply.

'What's wrong?' she asked, slightly aggravated this time.

He paused briefly, looking at her with concern, as if he wasn't sure she was real.

'Tell me.'

'Once upon a time…' he said softly, '… a reporter went to an underground scientific facility. During her visit, a virus broke out. A virus so aggressive it could infest any living organism by a mere touch. She and the crew died within the walls of that facility.'

'Doctor please,' she fretted, quite disturbed by his sudden coolness and macabre need to consider the 'what ifs' of her traumatic experience. It's true, she could have very easily ended up dead in there. Still, she preferred to not dwell on that particular sliding door for too long. Didn't he notice it was upsetting to her?

'K9, could you negotiate yourself downstairs? Luke and Sky will be home soon.'

'Mistress and Master require privacy. Understood,' the dog said casually while wheeling towards the door. As he disappeared behind it, Mr. Smith too shut himself down.'

'However, one infected person managed to escape. A young woman.' the Doctor continued unaware of his friend's wishes. 'Within the next few days, half of the planet's biological life was infected. Men and women of all color and religion… dead within weeks. Children, dogs, horses, everything. There was no one there to warn them in time, you see. No Sarah Jane Smith to blow the whistle or warn any of her friends that might have been able to do something.'

He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

'Yes,' he purred. 'If I intended on destroying humanity, I would probably eliminate Sarah Jane Smith. The woman who knows who to call.'

'Thank you for that wonderful scenario,' she mumbled.

'Not that you're not fully capable yourself,' he smiled.

'You're saying the Yaxwinnik, and I presume you think Veronica Krauss is one… you're saying they planned all of this and tried to kill me. I say I'm not convinced.'

'Oh? Let me ask you something. Was it the first time you were attacked by something exactly like the thing you call Veronica Krauss.'

'She shook her head.'

He was right. Veronica Krauss, or whatever his or her name was, wasn't unique. Wasn't alone. So far she had seen two, both of them set on wringing the life out of her.

'They couldn't finish the job in the Vault and so they came back. Who knows what they're planning.'

'There are still too many things that don't make sense, Doctor.'

'Well naturally, that's usually the case…'

He smiled and slowly rose from the seat, wincing as he straightened his back.

'Very few mysteries solve themselves following the discovery of one tiny piece of the puzzle,' he groaned in agony as he reached for the area of his chest where the damage had been done.

'Let me help you,' she said while hurrying towards him.

'So often an answer simply leads to another question, doesn't it? How soon before most people decide to simply give up. But not you.'

'Never us,' she replied.

He briefly looked into her eyes. Content. Then, without so much as a warning, his eyes rolled back in his head and he sagged through his knees.

'Doctor!' Sarah cried as his weight pulled her down with him. She didn't know why she was so surprised by it. He was a big man and strong as an ox, of course he would be heavy. Still, her inability to keep his limp body from hitting the floor like a ton of bricks was sobering. Suddenly she felt like a fly attempting to grapple with an elephant.

She sat there patting his cheeks for what seemed like the better part of an hour. In reality of course, ten minutes would have been a more accurate estimation. His breathing was fine and his temperature was cold. Normal for him. As far as she could tell, he had fainted due to exhaustion.

'I'm sorry,' he mumbled softly, as if he was talking in his sleep. 'I couldn't…'

'Doctor?'

'Couldn't let you go…'

'Doctor, it's alright, I'm fine you didn't hurt me. I'm sorry I couldn't hold on to you, you keeled over and… well, you're hardly a featherweight.'

His eyes flickered open and immediately focused on hers. Something that was again, all too familiar. How many times had she held on to him as she was doing now, hoping he would wake up. His blue eyes would always search for hers immediately, if only for a second. In that second they had entire conversations. She explained to him how she felt and he did the same, and even though a word was never uttered, both would know exactly what the other was saying, and both would know everything was fine.

'You gave me a bit of a fright there,' she smiled.

He just looked at her without replying. Almost like a baby who looks at his mother for the first time.

Then, ever so slowly, a smile of relief crept onto his features.

'you're safe,' he whispered.

She smiled back at him, trying her hardest to restrain the tears that were begging for release. She failed. For the first time, she truly felt like he was with her. It wasn't just a dream. It wasn't something that she was just going to let pass by without saying everything she had always promised herself she would say to him. He was here and she was holding on to him. And dammit, she could cry on his new shirt if she felt like it!

'Of course I'm safe.'


	6. Chapter 6

**Bannerman Road **

**Present**

_Sarah Jane Smith raised her head and saw an unconscious Doctor lying in font of her, blood dripping from his fingertips and neck, seeping through the grid and down onto the hostile plant life beneath them. His damp curls sticking to his forehead._

_In the distance, she saw the Tardis… wheezing… crying almost… Its back broken by the many thick vines mercilessly squeezing the life out of her. She couldn't be certain, but it was almost as though something was attempting to escape the blue box. A yellow and reddish hue, like a mist forming around her, leaking through the cracks, yet afraid to let go._

_Seeing the powerful ship reduced to no less than a piece of broken junk broke her heart in two. An unsettling combination of deep sadness and powerful rage suddenly formed within her. Not just because of the knowledge that she was facing her own death, but the Tardis…_

_'Look at you,' she whimpered as a tear rolled down her cheek._

_'Doc…,' she attempted, but to no avail. Inside she was screaming. Inside, she was banging against the walls of her mind, urging her body to listen. Shouting at her legs to move and help both her friend and his wonderful ship. No response. All she could do was lie there and wait for certain death._

_As her vision dimmed, she was sure she heard the sound of the Tardis, _**_a_** Tardis, materializing close by.

_How?_

_'My dear girl,' an all too familiar voice spoke clearly. A voice belonging to neither the curly haired or the bowtie donning Doctor… _

_The last things she experienced was velvet grazing against her cheek, followed by a soft hand._

_'Doctor,' she muttered._

She awoke to the sight of moonlight seeping the curtains of her bedroom, and for a moment, she wondered whether she was still dreaming. Perhaps she would never wake up. The last few days had certainly felt like a dream. She glanced at her alarm clock.

04:22

Sighing deeply, she let her eyes wander back towards the window. She hated waking up after four in the morning. Too early to get up, too late to go back to sleep free of worry. As she had grown older, the once faint chance of sleeping through the alarm had grown into something of a habit if she dared to fall asleep again at any point past three. Her mind wandered back to her dream. Had it really happened? Had it been a dream or a memory only now recalled?

The unintelligible sound beneath her didn't seem to register in her mind at first, as she simply stared at the covered widows. The second wave of rumbling noises however, caused her to shoot up into a sitting position.

'Downstairs,' she thought. 'Definitely downstairs.'

Without hesitation, she threw off the covers and headed straight for the door.

Over the past few years, her investigative instincts had been somewhat pushed aside by other, more primal reflexes. There was a time when noises in her house would have caused her to race down the stairs and go head to head with whoever or whatever had entered her home without an invitation. Now, her first order of business were the two rooms opposite hers.

Softly, she opened Sky's room, expecting her daughter to be fast asleep in some odd position or other, just like she had done since the first night she had spent there. The girl had a rather amusing habit of going to sleep, arms on either side of her body like a statue, not happy unless the covers were perfectly neat and tucked in. A few hours later, she'd be draped across the bed or the floor in a contorted manner, clutching her pillow while her covers would be kicked in some corner of her room, not in any way resembling the situation she had gone to sleep in.

Once again, her daughter didn't disappoint. As Sarah stuck her head through the crack of the door, she immediately chuckled when she saw K9 atop Sky's bed while the girl herself had crawled underneath it. There was no point in picking her up and putting her back into the bed. She had attempted to do so many times. Within the hour, she would be asleep in the cupboard or in the tub anyway, and so Sarah gently closed the door again, happy to know her daughter was safe. Come the morning, she would be back in bed without the faintest idea of the nightly tour around her bedroom, and often bathroom and attic she had taken.

Luke too was fast asleep, albeit in a more conventional position. He grew up so fast. That fact had filled her with dread initially, she had to admit. These days however, she had to fess up to enjoying their time together more than she ever could when he was younger; when her lack of experience as a parent and general awkwardness being a mother to an alien son often got in the way of any kind of peace or enjoyment .

When she opened the door to the guestroom, she wasn't exactly surprised to find it empty. After all, the Doctor had been asleep since she had begged him to do just that right after he had collapsed in the attic. If anything, it was surprising he had slept all through the evening and part of the night. She had considered waking him up for dinner, but decided to leave him as soon as she considered the possibility that he may not even have been that eager to be prodded into a domestic scenario like that… or any kind for that matter.

During their travels, he had made a habit of avoiding those situations, often to her great chagrin. He would eat at different times, rest at different times, and generally uphold an entirely different biological pattern just to make sure their personal lives inside of the Tardis wouldn't get entangled too much. The control room and the planets they visited, that was where they lived side by side. Anywhere else he would cling to his privacy for dear life. Any attempts she would make at breaking through that enigmatic veneer, would be answered with days of awkwardness. Never once did he raise his voice or tell her off when she dared ask about his past. He would simply… avoid it. Where the silver haired Doctor had been generous with his time and revelations, this Doctor had been downright uncomfortable when expected to do the same.

As she descended the stairs, she immediately spotted the projected light of her television screen in the hallway, accompanied by the increasing sounds of nightly news repeats. She couldn't help but grin slightly at the thought of her Doctor watching the news, probably wincing and groaning at the display of worldwide violence and less than subtle schemes of partisan politics.

She entered the sitting room to the sight of the Doctor standing in front of the sofa with his back turned to her, both hands locked in his trouser pockets as he watched the screen.

She didn't have to speak…

'Morning, Sarah,' he said softly. Weary. Disappointed. He didn't turn to look at her as she approached him. He simply continued to gaze at the screen like a confused deer, helpless to do anything.

'Doctor? How are you feeling?'

'How can you stand it, Sarah…'

It wasn't a question so much as it was an accusation. One directed at her entire species.

'We look the other way. Most of the time at least.'

For a moment they both stared at the images before them. There wasn't anything unusual about them, but then she knew that that was part of the problem. At what point had starvation and war for the monetary gain of a selected few become so utterly commonplace? Perhaps it had always been part of humanity. Perhaps there hadn't been a single time in history when things had been any different. Perhaps no one in the universe would shed a single tear if the human race was wiped clean from its planet. A planet it took for granted anyway.

'Perhaps one day we'll all be like you,' she whispered. 'Perhaps one day we'll all pour into the streets at the first sign of injustice and face those responsible.'

He didn't respond.

'No one is immune to temptation, Sarah. Perhaps it's only a matter of time before all good people take advantage of whatever power they possess.'

'Do you really believe that?'

She looked at him confusedly, as if he had said something utterly preposterous. She shook her head and smiled.

'No. I can't believe that. Some people care more about what's right than they do about their own personal gain.'

He feigned a smile, took hold of her hand, and gently kissed her palm.

'You think so?' he purred, sending shivers down her spine as his big puppy eyes met hers again.

She nodded convincingly, sightly taken aback by the sudden display of intimacy.

'I know someone just like that as a matter of fact,' she answered softly.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

The corridors were dark and dim. While some of the halogens still had a little life in them, flickering on and off in a sickening unstable rhythm, most were completely dead.

With Sarah leading the way, and Mark helping Marianne, the threesome made their way towards the Hub. It had taken a good while for the elevator to reach the Hub. Despite having witnessed for themselves how the thing could move several times faster, none of them thought it a good idea to muck around with its complicated controls, and so they were happy enough to let it cruise upwards, hoping they wouldn't be attacked by another swarm of angry salad.

'Stay close,' Sarah whispered as she pointed her lipstick straight ahead like a gun, ready to sonic whatever threat may have been lurking around the corners.

After walking through the double doors, they halted abruptly. All three jaws collectively hit the floor as they entered the smoke-filled Hub.

The wreckage before them immediately provided proof that someone or something malicious had made it there before they had a chance to warn anyone.

Most of the equipment had been destroyed and lay scattered across the floor breathing smoke. Electrical cables dangled from the roof, jerking from side to side by their own accord, crackling violently as they grazed across the floor.

The lab was equally as dark as the corridors, but still, the damage was obvious. The only source of light were the top video screens, which were still functioning and displaying images of the Vault's passageways and stations like they were supposed to.

'Artie?' Sarah asked softly, afraid to raise her voice above anything but a whisper.

'Looks like someone tried to wreck this place on purpose,' Marianne suggested.

'I don't think so,' Sarah replied while quickly scanning their immediate surroundings.

'Too chaotic. Why leave part of the lab functional and still make such a mess in the process?'

She paused and turned her attention to the computer system.

'Perhaps he was looking for something?' Mark suggested.

'He?' Marianne inquired confusedly?

'Mark is convinced Karlsson is hiding something from us,' Sarah said while avoiding a sputtering cable. 'He thinks that he has designs on…'

'Don't tell me you don't sympathize with that point of view, Sarah. We saw him lurking around like a burglar with our own eyes, and besides...'

'Argus?' Sarah said, quite loudly this time as she interrupted Mark's monologue.

No reply.

As she approached the screens, her right foot slipped away from under her. Barely able to grab hold of a chair and remain upright, Sarah 's mind immediately deduced exactly what it was she had slipped on. Too thick for water. Too thin for glue. Not slippery enough for oil.

'There was a struggle here,' she said as she crouched down and dabbed her right index finger in a small puddle of human blood.

As Mark grabbed a chair for Marianne, Sarah held up her hand.

'Stay with her,' she ordered, prompting two disapproving looks.

'Don't you ever watch horror movies? You never ever, under any circumstance split up, least of all into groups of one,' Mark whispered.

As Sarah walked further into the lab in silence, and took in the full extent of the damage, she suddenly froze.

'What is it?' Mark asked as he had eased Marianne onto the chair.

Behind one of the desks, a pair of legs lay limp and lifeless underneath a toppled chair.

'No,' Sarah whispered as she immediately recognized the sandals.

Artie,' She gasped before hurrying towards him and removing the chair from his lifeless body.

She raised her hand to her mouth as she looked at his deformed chest. In the middle, a perfect hole had been made, as if a rat had dug a tunnel into his abdomen. It wasn't bleeding, it was just… empty. Apart from a few visible bits of rib it was quite a clean wound… or passageway rather.

'Oompffh,' Sarah exhaled violently, attempting to blow out the sudden vile stench which had crept into her nostrils and held her hand in front of her mouth.

'Mark,' she said blankly. 'Come and have a look at this.'

Mark was at her side in no time, feeling for a pulse before he had even noticed the hole in Artie's chest.

'Oh,' he muttered as he looked away and pulled his shirt up around his mouth.

As he shook his head at Sarah and proceeded to close Artie's eyes, they were suddenly interrupted by a violent shriek.

Jumping to their feet, their eyes grew large with instant fear. Coming through the door and approaching Marianne, was a dirty green and half burned abomination. Part humanoid, part plant.

In an attempt to divert the creature's attention away from Marianne, Mark immediately picked up a chair and threw it as hard as he could towards its head.

'Over here!'

Both Sarah and Mark stood nailed to the floor as the creature turned around to face them.

'Ramsey…' Sarah uttered in disbelief as she recognized parts of the pilot's deformed face.

Looking at Mark, it didn't hesitate. It ran towards him like a raging bull before leaping a considerable distance through the air and landing on top of him. Throwing back its head, it revealed a gaping rift in its own chest, almost like a monstrous mouth opening and closing at a considerable speed, wanting to get fed... badly.

As Sarah attempted to sonic the creature formerly known as Edward Ramsey several times to no avail, something began protruding from the 'mouth' in its chest. Slowly at first. Then - as rapid as gunfire, a tentacle-like appendage shot towards Mark's chest and attached itself there, prompting Mark to violently kick his legs around.

As he began screaming in agony and blood spurted from his mouth, Marianne wasted no further time. She stumbled towards it and hit it once more with one of the chairs. The creature stood up, causing Marianne to fall backwards and land on her head, knocking her out.

Still attached to a now unconscious Mark by way of its chest outgrowth, the creature lowered his chest towards Mark's face.

'Let go of him!' Sarah ordered a split second before a sound, like cloth being ripped, resounded through the lab. Behind the screaming creature, Sarah stood with a horrified look on her face, breathing heavily and uneven. Blood dripping from the screwdriver in her right hand. A normal screwdriver this time. One capable of doing severe damage even to the hardest of tissue. The creature fell to its knees, pulling an already shocked Sarah along with it. She didn't hold back... Instead, she raised the screwdriver above her head and stabbed the creature a second time, this time in the neck, causing an immediate flow of yellowish puss to spurt from the wound.

Its chest rose and fell quickly as Sarah attempted to free herself.

'Saaa-Saraaaah' It gurgled. 'You can't…'

'Cant' what?' Sarah demanded forcefully, screwdriver still aimed at Ramsey's face.

How did this happen? There she was, reduced to a ruthless killer and consumed by fear. Trembling as waited for Ramsey to speak.

'Can't let him leave. He's not who he says he is.'

Confused, Sarah shook her head and crept towards safety. Once seated at a distance from the abomination, she turned her attention to the place where Mark was lying.

Or rather, HAD been lying. She scanned around the room looking for him. Gone. He had just… vanished.

Mark!' she shouted while rising to her feet again. Looking back at the creature, its beige and bloodshot mutated eyes were somehow pleading her to listen.

'You c-can't let him take them. He lies about who he is,' it finished before gasping for its last breaths of air. 'I didn't mean to hurt you... It was hi-him I wanted.'

'Did you kill Artie?' Sarah asked as she leaned over him.

It was difficult to say, but for a moment, the creature looked genuinely shocked as it shook its head. As it gasped for air, Sarah held onto its hand.

'It's alright,' she whispered as Ramsey died. 'I'll make sure it's alright.'

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

She led him towards the garage by the hand. The moonlight was shining down upon them. It was one of those nights when the thin line between scary and romantic depended entirely upon the company. On this night, Sarah decided, the wet concrete tiles and the slight breeze rustling through the trees beneath the full moon, was most definitely quite romantic.

When they arrived at the garage, they both looked up at the pale sphere floating in the heavens. His smile turned into an expression of sadness. Or perhaps it was anger, she couldn't quite tell. All she knew for certain is that in that moment, he looked lost. Out of place. Like a prisoner bound to a planet obsessed by the mundane while he was anything but.

She would have told him she knew he'd rather be up there. That given the chance he would leave. That he was only with her because he had nowhere else to go without the Tardis. She didn't. Perhaps because she was afraid he would admit it. That he would actually repeat those words back to her. Instead, she gently prodded his arm and smiled.

'Come on,' she said softly as she opened the door and entered the garage. 'I have something for you.'

'A surprise?' he asked as his childlike enthusiasm took over and wiped the sadness from his eyes.

'Something like that,' Sarah replied cautiously.

'It's a shame, really,' she continued as they walked in, 'A very good friend of mine had just cleaned the place up for me, now look at it.'

His enthusiasm quickly subsided as Sarah switched on the lights and he laid eyes upon the rows of boring wooden crates.

'No wrapping paper then?'

'You know I would have,' she answered quickly. 'Except I didn't get them. I have no idea what's in them, UNIT dropped them off.'

'Oh no,' he muttered, wanting to make a U-turn out of the garage but being stopped by his friend.

'They probably want me to look at some boring piece of primitive…'

'They don't know what's in them either,' Sarah interrupted. 'None of us know. Only you…'

She stopped herself from finishing the sentence. Was he even allowed to know his future self had left them at UNIT HQ for delivery at Bannerman Road? What could she tell him? She didn't understand any of it herself.

He approached the first row of crates and crouched down to look at them. Immediately, he glanced back at her.

'These are Gallifreyan locks,' he whispered, his amount of surprise quite endearing. As if she didn't know. As if she wouldn't have inspected them.

After a few moments of further investigation, he glanced back at her.

'Whose boxes are these, Sarah?'

She shrugged her shoulders hesitantly, like a child attempting to hide something and failing miserably.

'Sarah,' he repeated, his low growl accompanied by a stern glare.

'Don't look at me like that. I don't understand what's going on anymore than you do. All I know is that none of this was meant to happen and you're… you're trying to fix it. I don't know what you did, but…'

'They're mine, aren't they?' he asked as he lowered his head onto the crate with a loud clunk and let out a heavy sigh.

'Tell me; was it me?' he asked nervously as he approached her again.

'What?'

'Was it me who delivered these boxes to UNIT? This body?'

'I don't know, honestly.'

He was panicking, she could tell. Once again she wondered what he could have done that had been cause for all of this secrecy and confusion.

He rubbed his eyes and held on to the wall, clearly not feeling well.

'Come here,' she said as she lead him to the nearest crate and helped him lower onto it. While feeling his forehead, she sat down beside them.

'I know something is wrong,' she said blankly. 'Now, I know you probably can't tell me, but… I'm worried. Not just worried, I'm scared. What's happ-'

'I made a choice, Sarah,' he interrupted. 'Whether it was a bad one or a good one doesn't matter. It's one I'll never for a second of my life regret having made.'

He raked back a few of his curls as he stared at the tiles beneath his feet. No matter how hard she tried to decipher the look in his eyes, she couldn't. For now, she settled on concern, even though she was well aware there was a lot more on his mind than he was willing to tell her.

'Could you forgive…' he hesitated.

'What?' she whispered while grabbing hold of his hand and locking her fingers with his.

'Could you forgive someone who distorted history in order to save that which he held dearest? Even if the consequences were uncertain and potentially severe? Even if it meant hurting others in the process?'

'Isn't that what you do? Re-write history?'

'I go along with the river and intervene in small ways, Sarah. Ways that don't alter its course. I don't go along throwing boulders in there.'

'Except that's exactly what you did_ this_ time, is that it?'

He gazed into her eyes, surprised by her remark.

'I know you were talking about yourself, I wasn't born yesterday,' she whispered tremulously as suspicions began taking form in her mind.

He simply nodded and continued his staring contest with the floor.

'A boulder… No. One can never be certain with time, but.. I think I may have constructed an entire dam.'

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

After Sarah had managed to wake up Marianne, she had sat on the floor, staring ahead.

'Twenty minutes. Less than half an hour.' Sarah whispered while ignoring Ramsey's deformed lifeless shape next to her…

'It's too quick. It took hours with Keeler.'

He looked different too. When Keeler had transformed in Harrison Chase's cottage, he had slowly mutated into a gigantic and frightening but rather clumsy… bush. This wasn't like that. Ramsey's rapidly mutated form had been much more agile and humanoid.

A confused Marianne gingerly approached Sarah and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. 'Sarah Jane,' she whispered. 'Are you alright?'

'How long since Ramsey got pulled into the elevator shaft?' Sarah asked impatiently.

'I'm not sure,' Marianne answered. 'I was out of it, remember? Again.'

Sarah nodded as her brain attempted to make sense of the situation. How could he have changed so fast? Was this a different kind of Krynoid to the one she had encountered all those years ago?

'Why do you ask? Do you know what these things are?' Marianne asked cautiously.

Sarah nodded, still entranced by some invisible thing in the far end of the room.

'Well, what are they?'

Sarah didn't reply. She rubbed her eyes and rose to her feet.

'We have to go look for Mark,' Sarah mumbled.

'What?'

'Mark. We have to find him! He could... I don't know.'

Sarah pressed her eyes shut. 'A grotesque parody of the human form,' she remembered the Doctor saying.

'You mean going back out there?!' Marianne protested. 'Who knows how many of those things are out there! Look, I'm sorry I've been of little use but I'm not about to do anything silly to make up for it either. I think we should warn someone.'

'Shhhhhhh,' Sarah hissed as she frantically began scanning the room.

'What is it?' Marianne asked.

The answer was given in the form of a barely audible slithering sound. Once again like a rattle-snake approaching.

'Stay there,' Sarah ordered as she reached in her pocket for her lipstick.

Slowly but steadily, she approached the desk behind which Artie had been lying. Sarah's mouth fell open as she saw what was left of him. No much more than a rotting carcass. Inside of the ribs, a horrifically ugly form of plant-life seemed to be flourishing; feeding on what was left of Artie's organic tissue and slowly growing larger, forming tiny tentacles which were flapping around with uncontrolled spastic movements. Then, quite suddenly, it died.

'Sa…'

'…ara…'

The sickening dying sounds made by the parasite inside of Artie's chest, were suddenly joined by the distorted buzzes and bleeps of what sounded like a transistor radio being tuned. There was a voice. An indiscernible voice speaking to them through waves of static. The video screens popped on with nothing to offer but snow. Every few second however, the greyish contours of something or someone moved across the screen.

Both women rapidly moved towards the screens and the intercom microphone.

'Hello! Is there anyone out there?' Sarah yelled.

'It's probably one of those things, we should leave it.'

'What if someone is trying to reach the Hub for help?' Sarah demanded.

'Sarah Jane Smith' the voice spoke. Loud and clear this time.

Sarah stood dumbfounded. That voice. That unmistakeable voice.

She shook her head, both in disbelief and joyful hope.

A low zoom rebooted the the computer system. 'Welcome' Argus said. 'Incoming message' with a bleeping sound, the screens displayed a sight she had long thought she would never get to see again. A man with a mop of dark curls atop his head, and a colorful scarf beneath it.

'Doctor,' she whispered in an almost reverential manner.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

The realization hit her sideways. She stood up from the wooden crate as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and she headed towards the door. Once there, she turned around to face him again.

'Sarah?' The Doctor asked, adjusting his position as he took in her sudden state of confusion.

'You weren't just telling a story, were you?' she asked. 'That wasn't merely one of many potential outcomes you were considering when you told me that story about Sarah Jane Smith dying. You knew…'

She placed both hands against the cold wall for steadiness as soon as she felt the muscles in her legs weaken.

'Sarah,' he said softly, hoping she wouldn't linger on the idea for too long.

He stood up and approached her. A look of deep and almost palpable concern emanating from his eyes.

'I died.'

He placed a hand on her back, gently urging her to meet his eyes.

'I died in that place and when you found out, you changed it. You just... distorted everything…'

'No, no, no,' he muttered, attempting to shush her like a child and gently held her.

'I saw a future which simply doesn't exist now,' he informed her, nodding as if to convince himself.

'Because you changed that course of events,' she snapped while escaping his embrace. 'These things aren't for you to decide.'

'I can't imagine you would have been happier as a corpse!' he growled. 'Not to mention the millions of lives that would have been lost. Perhaps this whole planet of yours would have been swallowed if I hadn't done what I did!'

Her silence spoke volumes. As she tried to hide the tears, he was by her side in no time, once again placing a begging hand on her back.

She slowly turned and accepted his unspoken invitation, burying her face in his chest.

'Anyone who wants to judge me need only spend five minutes with you, Sarah. I think most of them would forgive me my weakness in a heartbeat.'

He caressed her chin with his thumb and gently cleared away a few loose strands of hair which had endeared themselves to her warm moist cheeks.

'You're here. I'm here.'

'You said you'd never under any circumstance distort your own timeline.'

'I don't care,' he said blankly. Emotionless almost. As if every ounce of anger within him had cancelled itself out and had resulted in that one cold and selfish admission.

'Don't say that,' she exhaled while attempting to regain control of her breathing and pushed him away once more.

'Don't ever say those words to me, I don't want to hear them. Not from you.'

'I care enough for you to not care about the consequences. Like I said, I made a choice and I won't ever regret it, not even if takes me a century to solve them.'

'It will,' she thought silently. 'Several.'

The knowledge that several regenerations later, he would still be burdened by that choice, filled her with enormous guilt. If his current bow tied incarnation was still preoccupied by this mess, then who knew how long it would it still take him. Perhaps he would have to tie the loose ends of this breach together as long as he was alive. Talk about consequences. For her?

'I came back after I was done on Gallifrey. Wanted to be by your front door before you even got home, but the Tardis… Well… I suppose give or take thirty years isn't that much of an overshoot for the old girl all things considered. You know she's not the most punctual…'

His eyes suddenly grew dark.

'Or _was_ rather.'

He rubbed his eyes and continued…

'Instead she arrived right here on Bannerman Road. A few days after you… The Krynoid had escaped from the Vault. Had infected water supplies. By the time I arrived back on earth most of the plant life had turned hostile. Thousands of people had already been killed. I contacted UNIT. Heard about the Brigadier. His daughter told me you had died. I saw your children being harassed by reporters...'

He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, as if he was trying to erase the memory from his mind.

'When you walked out of the Tardis holding that silly owl I wanted to run after you, I really did.'

Once again he approached her and let his fingertips wander across her cheeks, as if he wanted to tease the tears out of her. She knew that was hardly the case, but still she couldn't help herself. Hearing him say the opposite of what she had thought all those years incited so much relief and joy within her that she felt like she would either melt or explode into a million pieces.

'For years I thought you'd forgotten me,' she muttered. 'Little did I know you were already with me. Here. Now. In my future.'

Everything became clear in her mind. Upon her reunion with him at Deffrey Vale, she had asked him why he didn't come back for her. His reply had not sat well with her afterwards. He had simply told her 'I couldn't.' That had been it. Now she knew why he hadn't returned. Why he couldn't. He already had come back for her… in her course, to that Doctor all of this had already been a memory. Despite her happiness, she still felt like crying. This would end. He would leave again. The rational part of her brain had known that from the start, but now it was absolute.

'Forgotten you?' He grinned his maniacal grin and shook his head in disbelief while dabbing away the tears on her cheeks with his thumb. 'How could I forget you when I… when we had so much left to do… and see… and say.'

'Must have been quite a shock to see me like this,' she said, feigning a smile in an attempt to hide her insecurity. She rubbed her hands and looked down, hoping he wouldn't notice her sudden discomfort.

'Like what?' he inquired in complete earnest. He looked worried almost.

'Are you not well? What's the matter?'

She smiled. A genuine smile this time. Was it silly to think he would ever even care about how old she looked? No it wasn't. 'No, let's be honest here,' she told herself. 'This is a man whose main habit is to pick up young women he can show off to and impress. Quite slutty of him, actually.'

She chuckled to herself, leaving the Doctor to stand waiting for a reply in utter confusion.

'Sarah, what's wrong?'

'I mean, I've grown old, Doctor.'

He stared at her as if he wasn't supposed to react to that statement. As if he was watching a talking head on television. 'Yep,' she thought. 'Silly.' Perhaps he really is absent and scatterbrained enough not to have noticed the sagged skin here and there.

'You've grown preoccupied with meaningless details, Sarah Jane,' he answered, only then realizing what she meant.

'Old?' he continued as he tapped her nose. 'I must say, I find that a tad insulting.'

She smiled, realizing the oddness of it all. He was ancient compared to her. Even the plus one hundred club of humanity were a bunch of spring chickens compared to him. Yet he looked so young suddenly. A man in his physical prime, while she was… past it.

'It's rather… well, personal of course,' he stammered. 'But by my estimation, you look sensational.'

Before she could react, he leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, causing her to gasp ever so slightly. The feeling of his bare lips on her skin set her entire body aflame. Nerves she never knew she had spasmed with pleasure and gratitude, only to be cooled down again without so much as a warning by the neverending waves of shivers running across her spine. As she opened her eyes, she was immediately comforted by the look in his. A look that revealed he too was suffering certain overwhelming neurological effects regarding one seemingly mundane peck.

He cleared his throat as if to exorcise his body of its unexpected biological reactions to the taste of her skin on his lips.

'Well,' he sighed heavily. 'Gallifreyan locks, eh? Let's have a look then.'

'There's two other things,' Sarah said, trying hard to appear semi-normal despite the fact that she felt like the room had been turned sideways. 'Wow,' she mused. When men in her past had mustered up all of the passion inside of them, and had poured that passion into a kiss, it hadn't amounted to even one tenth of the effect two seconds of his soft lips on her forehead had provided.

He gazed at her patiently.

'Mr. Smith can be accessed through that laptop.' She pointed at the computer on the old desk. 'He may be of some assistance with whatever it is that's in there. And there's this peculiar thing you… Unit also delivered. It might have something to do with this. It's in my desk in the attic, I'll go and get it for you.'

'Thank you, Sarah.'

She nodded and turned to face the door.

'Oh,' she whispered while turning around again.

He looked at her quizzically.

'Hungry? I am… I'm very hungry.'

He didn't answer. Instead he grinned his maniacal grin, letting her know that he was happy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

The foul odor emanating from the burnt crepe in the pan beneath her awoke her from her daydream. He had been hard at work in the garage, attempting to open the locks on the crates with little luck and even less patience, and after nearly an hour of stubborn sulking over his inability to make heads or tails from them, she had decided that making breakfast seemed like a more pleasant task than having to deal with his frustration.

With a stack of successful crepes on a plate, and another few incinerated ones in the bin, it was obvious that even the simple task of making breakfast was too demanding of her attention. How could it not be when the only thing she could think of was the fact that, if not for his intervention, she would have been dead. Even more unsettling, she _had_ died. He had simply made it… undone.

While carefully pouring the batter into the pan, her mind wandered back to that sudden act of affection he had shared with her in the garage. His subtle scent seemed to linger in her nostrils, withstanding even the burnt odor which had taken her entire kitchen hostage. He smelled different to other men. Of course, the Doctor rarely broke a sweat; a result of his low body temperature. He smelled fresher and sweeter. Always exactly the same. Intoxicatingly wonderful and tempting.

Suddenly she shook her head and aimed her focus back onto the pan in front of her.

'Bake!' she ordered herself internally.

She flipped over the thin pancake and reached for the radio. Perhaps some soft early morning music would help her complete this one mundane task. She had to admit to not being a kitchen princess. As a matter of fact, she was a downright terrible housewife and mother where practical things were considered. No doubt the amount of ruined dinners and shrunken clothes she had been responisble for over the years could have covered the entire street.

Her thoughts halted when a familiar tune made itself known from the box beside her. She smiled… happily at first. She hadn't heard Jim Croce on the radio in what seemed like half a lifetime. Before all of this. Before him and his box. Her smile slowly faded as the song played on… reading her mind. Soothing her. Mocking her entire existence since the Doctor had sank his alien feet in it.

_'If I had a box just for wishes and dreams that had never came true._

_The box would be empty, except for the memory, of how they were answered by you.'_

Once again she was stirred back to reality by an overly enthusiastic DJ, who by the sound of his voice, had a perfect life and a perfect wife and perfect happy children.

'Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce, wishing you a very good morning as the clock strikes six. It's the news.'

She huffed contemptuously at the small transistor, as if the poor bloke had been responsible for how these last few days had unfolded. If he had been responsible though, she would have had to kiss him as much as she wanted to slap him. After all, her Doctor was back. The thing that she had hoped and dreamed of for years, had come to pass. The man she had yearned to see again was in her garage, probably muttering at a few inanimate ojects.

As she lifted another successful crepe on top of the small pile, her eyes wandered towards the garage. If she wanted to see him, all she had to do was walk outside, open the door, and there he would be. That was all that mattered. Even knowing what he had done. Knowing that he had abused his powers to alter the course of the universe… for her. He was there. Nothing else mattered.

'…Kraus International have successfully completed private research of Thyrisium B…'

Sarah's eyes snapped back towards the radio, her pupils dilating as she heard Krauss' name mentioned.

'… a renewable greenhouse gas remediating fuel they hope will, in their words, render petrochemistry and distribution of harmful abiotic oils and fossil fuels unnecessary forever. Founder Edmund Krauss was quoted as saying that it's high time for oil companies to evolve as the health of the planet is devolving day to day. More on Thyrisium B and Krauss International later today with ecologist Martin Prashad.'

'Thyrisium B,' Sarah repeated.

As soon as the word had left her mouth, the doorbell rang.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

'Sarah Jane,' he replied, caressing every letter of her name with his rich tones. The sound sent shivers down her spine. How long had she wanted to hear that voice.

She smiled. Years of hoping, wishing, and dreaming had come to pass in front of her, albeit on a screen. Was this real? Was he really here?

After a brief moment of exaltation, the joy in her eyes made way for concern… terror even, as soon she noticed the blood trickling from his left temple. He was in a misty room, his breath forming steamcircles against the camera.'

He wasted a few seconds as he took in the sight of her. A faint smile spreaded across his lips only to fade away again as subtly as it had arrived.

'Dr. Marianne Holden, is that you?' he asked, suddenly businesslike.

'Yes, that's me,' she replied whilst giving Sarah a questioning look. 'How does he know my name?'

'Hardly matters at the moment, Doctor Holden,' the Doctor answered. 'Sarah, I take it you know what we are up against by now?'

'Krynoid,' she said softly, watching him intently, still not sure whether it was really him.

'Good girl. Now first things first. The water in the facility is highly contaminated. Did either of you drink it during the last few hours?'

'No,' said both women simultaneously while shaking their heads.

'Are you absolutely certain?'

They nodded in unison.

'I didn't even use the water to brush my teeth, I always take bottles everywhere,' Marianne said. 'It's a thing I have.'

Sarah's eyes met the ground as she suddenly remembered brushing her teeth with tap water that very morning.

'Sarah Jane?' he asked.

'I didn't swallow it… I don't think I did.'

The Doctor sighed as he noticed the sudden fear in her eyes.

'It's probably fine. If you were in danger, you'd be experiencing severe pain in your abdomen. The Krynoid would have probably dug its way out already.'

He punctuated the information with a demented grin, as if the thought of something digging its way out of her chest was in any way amusing.

Sarah glanced at what was left of Artie's lifeless body.

'Of course. Why didn't I notice it?'

On his desk, a glass of water stood empty.

'Mister… ermmm,' Marianne began.

'Doctor,' he replied.

'Doctor, people have gone missing. There's a good chance one of them is infected. He was… attacked. We don't know about the others, but we can't locate them and for all we know they're dead.'

'Well,' the Doctor said blankly. 'I met Johan Karlsson upon my arrival here.'

'What did he say?' Marianne asked.

'I'm afraid there was nothing he could say. He was dead and frozen stiff when I got here. Shot through the back of his head… Happened anywhere between four to eight hours ago if you ask me.'

'Someone must have killed him during the night,' Sarah whispered. 'Doctor, I think Karlsson may have brought the pods in here. He was acting very suspicious, carrying around a a black container. Last night Mark and I saw him hide it.'

The Timelord didn't look impressed.

'Never mind that now,' he said. 'Who else is missing, Sarah?'

'Mark is. Mark Turner.'

The frown on his face revealed suspicion.

'Sarah... Whatever happens, we must avoid the Krynoid from spreading beyond this facility. It is absolutely paramount, do you understand? If those things get out of here, all animal life on this planet will fall prey to its appetite. It won't stop.'

'Where are you Doctor?' Sarah repeated.

'You know the old girl. Accuracy is hardly her strong suit. Meant to land right there with you, instead she decided to drop me of in the Greenhouse. Probably thought I'd enjoy a nice stroll through the gardens, which, in a way, I ended up having. Though I suppose one could have described it better as an immediate escape to the nearest safe place. Locked myself in the freezer. Gigantic place I'll have you know, one could stock several lifetimes worth of ice cream in here. Once again, he grinned sardonically.

'How will you get out?!' Sarah fretted, growing impatient with his sense of humour.

'That's not as important, listen… I need you both to help me.'

'But,' she protested.

'Sarah!,' he hissed.

She nodded in silence.

After a moment's pause, he cleared his throat and looks straight at her through the camera.

'Listen, this place is rigged with thermobaric weaponry in case of catastrophes such as virus outbreaks. It's a fairly uncommon safety precaution, but considering our plight, quite lucky for us.'

She suddenly felt sick. Time stood still as he revealed his plan. A feeling in her stomach so powerful she was sure she'd either faint or throw up, or both.

'They run on timers. I need you two to deploy them, you should have plenty of time to get out. 30 minutes to be exact.'

'You mean blow this place up?' Marianne asked incredulously.

'Yes, Dr. Holden. That's exactly what I mean.'

'No.' Sarah snapped sternly. She pressed her lips together and shook her head with conviction.

'I myself would be the first to look for an alternative, Sarah. Explosions are rather dull, I find. They so rarely justify the mess one is left with afterwards.'

Sarah turned away from him as she fought back the onset of tears.

'Why did you come here?' She whispered with her back still turned to the screen.

'Sarah?' Marianne asked carefully before she turned her attention to the Doctor.

'If you know so much about this place then why can't you do it? Marianne demanded accusingly.

'You're trapped, arent you?' Sarah mumbled to herself.

'I'm not leaving any time soon, Dr. Holden. Krynoid have me barricaded in here. I can access the computer files from here but the command for detonation must be inputted into the motherboard. A motherboard which can only be accessed from where you are.'

Now, I need you two to locate a file named 'CLOUD'. That file contains the password and input sequence necessary. Once you have those, you'll have to locate the actual switch which...'

He was silenced by Sarah.

'How dare you ask this of me?' she demanded as she turned to face him again.

He didn't blink.

'I realize this may seem drastic, Sarah.'

'I don't give a damn about this place!' she snapped. 'You're asking me to...' She tried to calm herself but couldn't.

'You're asking me to blow this hellhole up with you in it?'

'Am I?' He asked with a wistful grin and obvious sadness in his eyes.

'I wasn't supposed to come here. I just... I couldn't let you... I really thought I could save both of us.'

Wiping a tear from her cheek, she stepped closer to the screen. How badly she wanted to hold him.

'What do you mean... save both of us?'

They were interrupted by noises behind the wall as the connection distorted. The same rattlesnake-like noises they heard in the elevator.

'Sarah! Sarah do you hear me?!'

'Yes! Yes, I'm here.'

'Both the password and the input sequence are in the CLOUD file. You'll have to locate the actual dead man's switch, it should be somewhere in the Hub.'

'Where?!' Marianne asked loudly as the distortion on the sound grew.

'I Don't know. Could be behind any door or in any cupboard.' He replied. 'You'll have to hurry. Once the Krynoid reaches the main lab it may already be too late. And Sarah… Stay away from Turner.'

Sarah stared at him in utter confusion.

'I'll start locating the file then, shall I?' Marianne said nervously.

The screen started flickering as he addressed Sarah.

'I know you can do this Sarah Jane,' he said as she stared at him.

'Doctor...' she began.

Nothing. As she attempted to speak, the screen went black, leaving her only with her own reflection.

She nearly drowned in her own thought process. How could he ask this of her? He couldn't die. Not here and certainly not now. She'd seen some of his future selves. She would have burst into uncontrollable tears if not for that knowledge. Stay away from Turner? Why didn't he just run for the Tardis? How would they survive out there in the cold if they escaped? Neither of them coud fly a helicopter. What was she supposed to do?

A blizzard of confusion swept her up until' eventually, she wiped her mind clean from all of the questions by way of one simple definite answer. The only answer that made sense.

'This time it's me who saves him. Damn his plan.'

She would take care of the Krynoid and blow the place to oblivion… but she would walk out of here with him or die trying. The knowledge that future regenerations had already proven she would be successful, filled her with a sudden sense of confidence.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

As she answered the door, she was greeted by the back of a someone's head. A mailman, judging by the look of his attire.

'Can I help you?'

'Personal delivery for Sarah Jane Smith,' the man said as he twirled around to face her.

'Doctor!', she breathed, obviously relieved to see him.

'Shhhhh,' he hissed as he placed his index finger to her mouth like a frightened little boy worried he might be caught by his dad doing something naughty.

'I'm in the garage, remember? he whispered as he straightened his bow tie, which looked utterly ridiculous in combination with the rest of his uniform. 'I might hear.'

'Where did you steal these clothes?' Sarah asked while placing her hands on her hips.

'I didn't steal them,' he protested. 'And stop doing that!'

'Doing what?'

'Standing there like you're my mother,' he said while mimicking her authoritative stance.

His remark surprised her. Was that how he thought of her?

'I wouldn't even want to be,' she snapped.

He smiled back suggestively.

'I knooow,' he whispered, winking as he giggled before quickly clearing his throat in embarrassment.

'Excuse me?'

'Nothing. Yes, I will have a thin dough wipe, thank you,' he said while barging past her without answering.

'How do you know I have…' She stopped and suddenly realized. 'Oh… right. And they're referred to as 'crepes' on planet earth.'

'They're referred to as crepes on planet earth,' he mimicked.

By the time she had closed the door behind him, he had long disappeared into the kitchen. She quickly glanced up the stairs to make sure they hadn't woken the kids, and hurried her way towards him before he had eaten her entire breakfast.

As she entered the kitchen, he was waiting for her. From his mouth hung several thin shreds of dough, like strips of pasta. Pushed between his eye sockets were two pieces of strawberry, and in his hand, an orange.

'Look, I'm an Ood,' he said blankly.

She raised her eyebrows and presented him with a questioning look. Despite not being able to see her, he quickly removed the strawberries from his face and ate the strips of dough dangling from his mouth.

'I suppose you had to be there,' he mumbled.

'What are you doing here, what's wrong?'

He didn't waste time.

'I'm here to tell you to stay away from Krauss,' he ordered while rubbing his hands. 'I'll deal with them, it's too dangerous for him at the moment, he's in no state to tackle it… Besides, he's got more important things to attend to.'

Sarah chuckled.

'You expect me to try and stop him… stop you…'

'Yes,' he urged. That's the way it turned out. That's my past. You kept me here. You're doing fantastic so far, Smith. Everything is going according to plan, but if you and him re-write the next few days, it may take years for him, for me… for us... to realize where the loose end occurred and another several hundred to fix it. Every wrong turn I make has severe consequences. Knots in time that can only be untangled by going back.'

She watched him in silence, shocked to hear how heavy a weight the decision to save her had been.

'How many times have you done this? How many times have you had to go back into your own timeline and tie up yet another loose end you or anyone else caused while trying to fix another loose end? All because of me… 'the knot' in time. Because you refused to just let things run their natural course.'

He sighed and violently grabbed hold of another pancake.

'What's so natural about dying at the hands of a species that doesn't belong here?'

'You're not the judge, Doctor. I told you that earlier in the garage and I'll say it again.'

'Neither is anyone else,' he hissed. 'If The Krynoid killing you and millions of other people is natural then so is my interference. Exactly whose standards of morality are you judging me by?'

She gazed at him in silence, for a moment unsure of who she was talking to… and yet, she couldn't answer his question.

He sighed, well aware she was not to blame. Well aware that her potential lack of trust in him was his own doing. His unwillingness to tell her everything had caused it.

'I can't tell you everything. Not yet. It's too dangerous. But I promise you I will. Someday I will.'

'Can I ask you one thing? Just one thing.'

The Doctor nodded.

'No promises,' he mumbled.

'It's just that. I had a dream right before I woke up this morning… For a moment,' she hesitated.

'Yes?'

'Was it you who brought us both back here from the Vault?'

He smiled victoriously. As if relieved.

'Of course it was me, Smith! Come here.'

He held her tight and rested his chin on her head, violently rubbing her back.

'Perhaps it's just me that's the loose end,' she whispered. 'Perhaps you can't save me and expect everything else to just fall into place.'

He released her and stuffed a whole pancake into his mouth, only to embrace her once more, humming softly to her while he chewed.

'Don't do that,' he whispered. 'I told you. I don't care what it takes if it means the world has you in it. If it means my life has you in it.'

She smiled warmly. He was always good at that… comforting her. So unlike nearly every other man she had ever known. And yet, she also knew she was being manipulated in some sense, even if it was for her own good.

'Well, I suppose it won't be that much of a problem. He doesn't have the Tardis, does he,' she said, obviously burdened by that fact.

For a moment he looked at her suspiciously. As if frightened she would start asking questions about the whole Tardis debacle too. He grabbed another pancake, put it into his jacket, reached into his back pocket, and plopped a letter onto the table.

'Some of us haven't eaten yet!' she deadpanned as he left the kitchen.

'Some of us won't want to eat more than one,' he answered while turning around. 'Thought I'd make up for it now. Well, gotta dash. Read the letter, very important. '

He scooped her off her feet and kissed both her cheeks before quickly leaving.

'Doctor wait,' she called out to him.

'Make it quick, Smith. Important matters to attend to, and younger self on the way here,' he said while trodding towards the door and already opening it.

'Therysium B, what do you know about it?' Sarah managed while attempting to keep up.

'Therysium B,' he repeated.

For a moment, he scanned his own mind, went through the many shelves of his memory, and returned to reality empty handed.

'I've never heard of it,' he decided.

'Krauss International claim it's a viable green substitute for every kind of fuel.'

'Do they now?' he hissed, having obviously made his mind up then and there it didn't seem too kosher.

'Sarah!' a voice from the driveway called out.

The bow-tied Doctor's pupils dilated as he heard the familiar voice behind him.

'Oh, hello,' the curly Timelord said, prompting the older, yet younger looking version of himself to turn around for a brief second, only to quickly face Sarah Jane once more.

'Remember what I said, Smith. Read letter and don't let him wander off the same way you always did.'

As Sarah nodded the Doctors faced one another once more.

'Mr. Smith, I presume,' the older Doctor greeted, causing his instantly embarrassed younger self to quickly put his hands in his pockets as if he were hiding something. As if thinking 'I never touched her. Not like that.'

'Yes, well… Goodbye.'

The older Doctor scattered away like a frightened deer and disappeared behind the tall hedge, leaving Sarah Jane suppressing laughter and his younger self confused.

'What an odd chap,' the Doctor remarked.

'Extremely,' Sarah smiled.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Two Days Earlier**

A million thoughts ran through Sarah's mind as she stared at her own reflection on the screen. A torrent of memories, lost chances, possibilities… all of them screaming for attention until there was nothing left but certainty.

Certainty of one thing. She would get him out of there. He had never been one to give up and she wasn't about to let him fulfill that ambition now. Overwhelmed by confidence, she glared at Marianne and offered her a reassuring nod.

'You heard him,' she said. 'We haven't much time. Better take care of business before…'

The main worry Sarah was about to voice introduced itself with a few loud clangs against the floor. Then… the familiar slithering sound.

The krynoid were approaching.

'They're close,' Sarah breathed as she hurried over toward a holographic display and switched it on. Without delay, several 3D maps of every floor of the facility appeared in front of her.

'Cloud,' Marianne mumbled as she grabbed hold of the nearest swivel chair, gingerly plopped herself down in it, and began searching for the desired files in the computer.

'Cloud, cloud, cloud, where are you?'

'Once you're done with that, access the cameras and see if you can locate Mark.'

For a moment, Marianne looked at Sarah as if she was mad.

'Did you not hear what your friend said? You know he's probably infected just like Ramsey. You saw what I saw, he got that, that… thing's thing… jammed into his chest.'

'Well perhaps we can still help him. Now get on with it.'

Without further hesitation, Sarah returned her attention to the maps and let her eyes wander straight down towards the greenhouse.

'Where are you, Doctor?'

Her eyes quickly focused onto a large room located directly next to the greenhouse.

'That's it,' she hissed as she scanned the immediate surroundings for a possible entrance. A door, just a few feet away from the freezer's, grabbed her attention. If the Krynoid had infested the entire greenhouse it would be near impossible to make it from the one door to the other. She didn't have a choice… it was the only option. She placed her index finger on the door and looked for what would be her entry route as well as, hopefully, their escape route.

Behind the door was what seemed like some kind of square elevator shaft, only much wider. Dozens of staircases ran all the way up the shaft towards…

'The entrance tunnel,' Sarah whispered as she remembered driving past the door upon their arrival. Ramsey had said it led towards the bowels of The Vault. That was it. That's the way she would get to him.

**Krrrrrrrrrrrrr Krrrrrrrrrrrrr**

A sudden distortion in the map she was looking at caught her attention. Then, something on her arm… on her head… on her boots… like sand falling. As she looked down at the floor, her eyes grew large. Plaster was falling from the ceiling.

'No,' she whispered as she flung her attention upwards.

Yes. Right on cue, the disconcerting sound of something being ripped apart, almost like cardboard being torn, made itself known.

'They're right above us,' Sarah whispered.

As soon as the discovery was made, a blood curdling shriek resounded through the Hub, prompting Sarah's eyes to shoot immediately towards Marianne. Had Mark walked back in?

As she caught sight of something flying near to the ceiling, her heart stopped. Had the Krynoid managed to make themselves airborne?

Upon closer inspection, she sighed a heavy breath of relief.

'Edison!' she chuckled nervously as the bird payed no attention whatsoever to the two women and landed upon the pinball table against the wall.

'That's ten years of my life, right there,' Marianne breathed.

'If we don't find those codes it won't matter much,' Sarah said as she approached the younger woman. 'Look!'

Following Sarah's index finger, her eyes caught sighed of the near to collapsing roof and the recognizable sound of leathery plant tentacles growing louder.

'I simply typed 'cloud' into the search engine,' Marianne informed her nervously while still eyeing the ceiling. 'It's still looking for the file. There must be a billions of folders in there judging by how long it's taking, I wouldn't know where to start.'

'Good,' Sarah nodded as she looked at Edison bopping his head playfully atop the pinball table as if nothing had happened.

Secretly, a part of her hoped the computer would come up short. That a little square saying 'No results found' would pop up, and put a stop to what they were about to do. She was well aware of what the Krynoid would cause were they to escape this prison… She had seen what had happened with just one pod, let alone several. Still, the thought of blowing up this place filled her with revulsion. She couldn't have care less about the place itself. However, what was inside it… locked in its freezer, was of more value to her than anything else in the world. What if she failed?

She was urged back to reality by Edison's screeching. Then the Krynoid sounds stopped.

'Paaaaaaaswoooord,' the bird said casually.

'Right,' Sarah mumbled while shaking off her doubts. 'Now where is that switch?'

'Yes!' Marianne exclaimed. 'Found it!'

Sarah stared at the computer screen as Marianne opened the desire 'Cloud' file.

'Alright,' the younger woman sighed. 'It's a patch system. I have to generate a code and patch it to the switch.'

'What are you waiting for then?'

'Once I patch it…,' Marianne informed as she made sense of the file. '…we only have five minutes to enter the code into the switch…'

'Which we haven't found yet,' Sarah said as she walked back towards the 3D maps, hesitantly looking up at the cracks in the roof before she decided to stand underneath them.

'Paaaaaswoooord,' Edison repeated as he walked across the surface of the pinball table.

'If there's only a five minute time frame, the actual switch has to be close enough in order to get to it within five minutes,' Sarah said as she focused in on map. 'That means it's in this very room most likely.'

'Sarah!' Marianne screamed, her cry mingling with the alien sounds of something above Sarah's head.

She didn't have time to react. Didn't even have time to consider the blatantly obvious. Not until it was too late. Without warning, the green oily tentacles had latched itself around her hips and chest, slowly pulling her up towards the ceiling, nearly crushing her ribs in the process.

Within seconds, more of the snake-like extensions found their way through the ceiling and swung jerkily through the air like a nest of out of control fire hoses, swaying violently from side to side as its eerie sound effects grew louder again.

Without so much as another scream or whimper, Marianne rose to her feet to the best of her abilities and stumbled towards the fire extinguisher by the door with great determination, not in the least concerned by the hysterical slimy tentacles jerking themselves towards her.

As Sarah attempted to grab hold of her lipstick, Marianne pressed and pulled the button on the red canister, and turned back to face the creature…

'Alright!' she screamed as she aimed, ready to wreak havoc on the horrific alien being which was near to surrounding both of them with its 'arms'.

The hissing sound of the extinguisher resounded through the room as they became surrounded by white smoke. The ever thickening cloud merely seemed to awaken the Krynoid's hysteria even further. But then, quick as a flash, the tentacles retreated, dropping Sarah to the floor and disappearing in the now gaping hole in the ceiling. Just like that, they were gone again.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

As she led him towards the kitchen by the hand, she couldn't help but grin. It had been decades since she had cooked for him, or rather, attempted to. During her twenties, even a soft boiled egg had often presented its problems, and he had often revealed his disgust for her cooking by way of horrified looks and raised eyebrows. He never said a word, and she never dared to ask, knowing he would favour gentlemanly politeness over the truth anyway. At least now, she could offer him an edible dish or two.

'Sarah, I really should be getting back to work,' he protested while being pulled towards the small pile of pancakes.

'Those boxes are extremely important.'

'You can't know that can you?'

He halted next to the table and glared at her, prompting a silence only broken by the soft sounds of the radio.

Then, he noticed the white envelope on the table.

'That's just a bill,' Sarah snapped as she scooped up the letter the Doctor had left, folded it up, and put it in her pocket.

'Yes,' she whispered as if nothing had happened. 'They probably are important. They must be. Still, you haven't eaten properly in what? Days? You need your energy. Please just… sit down with me for fifteen minutes.'

She knew the situation made him uncomfortable. While other of his incarnations had less of a problem briefly giving into to domesticity, her Doctor had a deep rooted aversion to it. He would have more gladly cleaned sewers with a toothbrush for two days than to sit down in the kitchen of a suburban house and share a normal breakfast with her.

Rolling his eyes, he reluctantly caved in to her wishes and plopped into the chair.

'Thank you,' she said while placing a plate in front of him.

'No jelly babies, I'm afraid.'

Suddenly, he shot up from his chair as if having just woken up from a nightmare.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' she said, surprised by his overly dramatic reaction to a lack of candy. 'I have fruit.'

'No, no,' he shook his head, reassuring her that jelly babies hadn't even entered his mind. 'I should help, shouldn't I? What can I do to help?'

Sarah chuckled as she placed two plates and two cups on the table in front of him, endeared by his awkwardness when confronted with the 'normal everyday' Sarah Jane Smith.

'Nothing. Just sit down, you're a guest in my house. Besides, everything is done.'

He stared straight ahead as she poured him a cup of tea and loaded his plate with food. For a moment, she felt like a dangerous predator of some kind. A T-Rex perhaps, causing him to remain motionless in complete and utter fright. Once more, she was amused by how easily these little domestic scenes could knock him off kilter. When she was done distributing the food and drink, she sat down opposite him, suddenly realizing herself how very strange indeed the situation was. She looked up from her plate and noticed him glaring at his plate with great intensity, as if to rid the food upon it of some evil spirit by way of mental force.

She giggled and placed her hand upon his.

'It's fine, trust me. Having kids has taught me a thing or two about cooking rudimentary meals.'

He looked at her with great suspicion.

'I promise your Timelord tummy won't get cross.'

'That's what you said about that chocolate cake you made for Christmas,' he mumbled as he grabbed his fork with a certain amount of trepidation and brought the rolled up piece of crepe to his lips.

'Oh… oh yes,' Sarah giggled as she managed to remember that particular holiday season. 'Such a long time ago,' she whispered as she waited for his eyes to meet with hers.

'That was a good year… wasn't it?'

He looked at her, slowly nodding as he chewed his food and then, smiling a smile that made her entire body feel restless… warm… aching.

'Delicious,' he said softly, the sound of his voice only adding to the myriad of stirring and soothing sensations she was suddenly forced to endure.

'Some sugar or syrup?' she asked after forcefully clearing her throat, grateful the change of subject had so easily presented itself.

The look of disgust on his face provided an immediate reply.

'Syrup on dough?'

He shook his head while reaching for the sugar and covering the entirety of the crepe with it.

'Of course. How silly of me. Syrup on pancakes is endlessly more revolting than an entire cup of it poured over macaroni and cheese or mingled with champagne just to 'take the tartness out a bit.''

He nodded in complete earnest while taking another bite of his food, obviously failing to take note of his friend's gentle sarcasm.

'Strawberries?'

Once again he shook his head.

'I think this particular body of yours might regenerate from diabetes sooner than you ever would from Daleks or Cybermen.'

'Another truly heartbreaking form of human illness Gallifreyans are spared from. Imagine something so lovely and sweet as sugar being detrimental to the health of ones' entire species…' He chuckled at the thought and reached for his cup of tea.

Just then, a slight voice made itself known from the hallway, growing louder and louder until' the enthusiastic chant 'Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!' finally presented itself at the kitchen door in the form of Sky Smith.

'Morning,' the girl greeted softly and awkwardly upon being confronted by the very tall and imposing, albeit equally awkward Timelord sitting opposite her mum.

'Good morning,' the Doctor replied in an equally soft tone of voice while slowly backing away from the table as far as he could without rising from his chair… almost as if wanting to hide himself.

After observing the Doctor from head to toe, and giggling at the sight of the unruly mop of curls atop his head, she bravely approached the table.

'Sit down and have breakfast, darling,' Sarah said while pulling the chair next to hers from under the table. To little avail as the girl in colorful pajamas and huge fluffy elephant slippers promptly decided she'd rather be seated next to the oddly adorable giant her mother had brought home.

'We were just talking about how Timelords can't get ill from sugar', Sarah attempted, fully aware that it had to be one of the poorest conversation starters she had ever managed to conjure up.

Regardless, Sky gazed back at the Doctor in amazement; impressed by that ability more than any superpower she had ever read or heard about.

'Lucky bugger,' she gasped with utter envy, eliciting a less than subtle look of pride from the Timelord.

'You are such a child,' Sarah mused. The thought being caused not by her young daughter, but by the ancient being sitting at her table.

Nevertheless, she was relieved he hadn't yet attempted to hurl himself through the window in desperation after being presented with her daughter… and for a second, she wondered whether he might just, perhaps, be able to get used to it. She pushed the tiny seed of hope aside and quickly told herself otherwise.

'He doesn't belong here. He doesn't belong to you. He belongs to himself and the infinite and ever expanding universe, not your kitchen.' Then again, he was stuck here… at least for the time being.'

'Morning,' Luke muttered, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he passed the Doctor unaware and casually sat down beside his mother.

'Oh,' he said as he looked up, suddenly presented by the sight of his sister staring at the 'new' Doctor's hair while chewing her breakfast.

'Hello.'

'Hello,' the Doctor once again replied in the exact same manner as the greeting he had been presented with.

'Never thought I'd see you reduced to a parrot by my own children, Doctor. Perhaps you ought to take these monsters with you to do the negotiating.'

Instantly, Sky's eyes and frame grew larger with anticipation.

'Forget I ever said that,' Sarah ordered, instantly realizing her mistake.

'Aww,' the girl whined, sagging back down in her chair while the Doctor cleared his throat and finally rose from his seat, prompting Sarah to kick herself internally when remembering once again he had nowhere to go. Not to mention the little joke at his expense she had insisted upon prior to that.

'Too far,' she told herself.

'I think I've wasted enough time. Plenty of work still left for me in your garage,' he said coolly. 'Thank you very much for breakfast, Sarah Jane.'

'You've hardly eaten,' she protested, knowing all to well it would be in vain. Remembering his older self had already hinted at his refusal to eat.

'I don't really feel like it right now. Thanks all the same.'

He made his way past Sky and headed for the door, leaving Sarah rubbing her forehead in disappointment.

'Good luck,' Luke deadpanned, forcing the Doctor to submit to the conventions of human politeness and turn around. 'Hope you sort out soon what's in them.'

'Thank you, Luke,' The Timelord replied, somewhat feigning gratitude.

'Will you be leaving mum again as soon as you do?'

The Doctor halted, this time refusing to turn around.

'Luke,' Sarah urged.

'I won't let you and Sky get hurt, Mum. Who knows what kind of vile things are after him right now. If he cared anything about our safety, he would leave.'

'He won't let any of us get hurt,' Sky protested. 'He's ten times bigger than you are to start with.'

Finally, the Doctor turned to face the trio of odd squabbling beings in the kitchen. How little control they had over their emotions.

'Your son is a very clever young man, Sarah. Perhaps he's right. I've intruded without asking any of you whether or not you agreed. Terribly inconsiderate of me.'

He turned around and headed out of the door.

'You're mean,' Sky hissed at her brother.

'You're naive,' Luke replied.

'Shut up, you two,' Sarah ordered. 'Luke, I appreciate your concern but it's unwarranted. He's staying right here and that's final. The problems that could arise from him leaving far outnumber those that could happen if he stayed. Trust me.'

She realized that those two last words held little meaning. After all, she herself had her doubts. She herself had no clue about was happening. But if the Doctor said to keep his younger self with her, she would.

'Doctor!' she called out after him.

By the time she caught up with him, he was already entering the garage.

'Doctor…'

'Sarah Jane, I promise I will be out of your hair as soon as possible. Your son is absolutely right. Now, If you'll excuse me, I have matters to attend to. Two days, that's all I ask, I'll never ask for anything else again.'

'But I don't…'

'Sarah, please, I'm wasting time…'

'Yes,' she suddenly huffed. 'You made that quite clear. Any moment spent with us is a waste of your valuable time. Of course me and my children aren't powerful alien queens or presidents. We spend our time eating breakfast, and getting on with our mundane lives. Sorry that's such a disappointment and embarrassment to your high and mighty ambitions.'

She turned around and ran off, slightly embarrassed by the soap opera scene which had unfolded on her own driveway.

'Sarah, I -' he swallowed his plea and simply closed the garage door, determined to open those boxes. Once he found out, he'd be gone… by taxi if required. He had years of untouched pay from UNIT sitting in a bank account. Although considering earth's laughable economic system, it would more than likely amount to little more than peanuts today.

Sarah ran up the stairs and plopped herself atop her bed, ready to have a good cry. As soon as she landed however, she felt the folded up letter from the older Doctor still tucked in her pocket. She retrieved it and rid it of its envelope…


	8. Chapter 8

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

_**Dear Smith,**_

_**One of your favorite novelists once wrote 'Readiness to answer all questions is the ultimate sign of stupidity,' and while I hasten to add that I have little intention to devalue or pervert those words for my own benefit, it is perhaps the most accurate description of this particular cul-de-sac we find ourselves in.**_

Sarah huffed as she read the words out loud. Whether they were words of genuine commiseration or utter manipulation, she hadn't decided yet, and perhaps she never would. One things was certain however… his written word was laced with as much arrogance as the ones he spoke.

She cocked her head to one side, suddenly realizing that it _was_ quite nice that he had remembered how fond she was of Saul bellow during their traveling days.

_**Where I am unable to answer all of the questions which have already taken shape in your mind, as well as those yet to present themselves to you, I am able to be honest. The truth is I don't presume to know how you felt or are feeling, and that I don't want to ruin or alter those feelings by telling you how this will play out.**_

'Oh,' she groaned loudly before tossing the letter aside.

'That pompous, vain, stubborn… bow-tied mule!'

For a long time, she gazed at her pillows as a weary expression began to settle on her face while she was in fact suppressing the desire to scream. Soon a second urge leaped up in her mind. For a second, she wanted to know what would happen should she divert the course of events which had already happened for the older Doctor, and she had been commanded to guide towards a successful conclusion. Successful at least on his part. The conclusion that stood before _her_ however, was anything _but_ successful.

She would have to let him go. She would get the wrong end of the stick. Once again she huffed at the notion that she was but a rat in a maze, prodded and toyed with enough to offer it a sense of direction and hope, yet essentially manipulated and used in a scheme beyond her understanding.

'What do I care,' she lied to herself as she arose from the bed and pulled back the curtains before being stabbed in the eyes by the dizzying sunlight and peering down at the garage; all the while attempting to somehow diminish her own interest in the letter. Still, it begged for her to carry on reading as she imagined the look of utter disappointment he would have plastered on his face knowing she had so carelessly thrown his words aside.

She sighed, pressed her lips into a circle, and ran her fingers through her hair before sitting down beside the piece of paper, gazing at the writing upon it as if it were a foreign language. As if it had been written by someone removed from her, not just by time, space, and species, but by memories, intentions, laughter, tears. The boyish Doctor. So young in appearance, yet so cynical and angry.

'I don't know you anymore,' she whispered tremulously as she picked up the letter and continued…

_**You threw away the letter, didn't you**__**,**__** Smith? I figured you might have.**_

The look of guilt and sadness was replaced by a wondering frown. Seemed that where she had lost her grip on who he was these days, he still knew her well enough to predict she would take offense to certain parts of his letter.

_**The only truth that I am certain of is that he, I, we, are with you now because of yet another truth. That he loved you. By no means is he a saint. By no means would he stand blameless before a moral grand jury, but he is so much more innocent than I am, Smith. I still carried so much hope then**__**.**__** My reasons for saving you were pure. Devoid of hubris. I didn't do it because I knew I could. It happened because of a primal reflex. Instinct. Logic never once entered into it, no matter how much I, we…he may be trying to rationalize it in terms of right or wrong in front of you. **_

_**When someone you love is on the verge of falling, the universe throws its weight behind you, grabs you by the hand, and guides that hand in whatever direction required to allow that love to continue. **_

_**Perhaps it wasn't even a choice. Choosing requires consideration. I merely reacted.**_

_**I suppose you must be feeling a little hard done-by, but never for a moment think I was ever**__**,**__** or will ever be glad to walk away from you. Never once have you been a waste of my time, Smith. Never once will you be.**_

_**As for now, please surrender to the moment and let the pieces fall where they may. If you help me close this door, Smith, another will open… Take it from someone who has walked through it and seen how happy you were. How happy you will be. As for me, don't worry… This puzzle is one I solve gladly and without regret, knowing that it gave us time.**_

_**P.S. No Yaxwinnik hunting.**_

As a tear fell upon the paper, trickled down, and smudged the letters on its path before being absorbed somewhere near the bottom, she was violently pulled from her thoughts by a sudden, heart stopping crash outside of her window.

As dozens of horrible scenarios presented themselves to her, she shot up from the bed and violently pulled back the curtains, thinking that perhaps they had once again been visited by a member of the Krauss family. Or perhaps another threat altogether. The rest of the universe wouldn't sit idly by waiting patiently with the dice for the Yaxwinnik to finish their turn on the board either.

Instead of any of the intergalactic pests she could think of, she was faced with another. A frustrated Timelord. As she looked out of the window, she was immediately confronted by the sight of several wooden planks being hurled out of the open garage and onto her driveway. Not just any planks… as she saw the word 'fragile' written on the side of some of them, a tentative smile appeared.

He had done it. He had managed to open the crates.

Immediately, curiosity got the better of her. As her legs guided her out of the door and down the stairs almost unwillingly, she forced herself to abondon any kind of concern about how he would react. As she made her way out of the front door, and towards the garage, ducking past a plank flying towards her, she could see Luke and Sky surveilling the situation through the kitchen window.

'Stay there, Sarah!' the Doctor said as he appeared from behind the left hand garage wall, obviously in a state of confused excitement.

'But,' she protested as soon as she caught a glimpse of the opened boxes as well as a familiar yellowish hue in the back of her own garage. She had seen that misty light before somewhere, but couldn't place it.

'You managed to open them! Perhaps I can help?' she attempted.

'No,' he snapped as he took sight of the mess he had made and began picking up the planks. 'Might be dangerous.'

She norted loudly and crossed her arms, prompting the Doctor's face to tighten. That stance implied a bitter accusation of some sort, just like it always had. 'What's dangerous is tossing wooden objects at people's heads,' she hissed almost on cue.

He angrily shook his head as he picked up the rest of the planks and placed them in a neat pile, remaining with his back towards her after he was done.

The, without apparent reason, he began laughing, raking his curls back with both hands as he circled around his own axis, obviously possessed by a sudden fit of madness that made her wonder whether she had finally managed to give him a nervous breakdown.

'I'll take that as a no then,' she mumbled before turning towards the kitchen door, feigning disinterest.

'Numbskull,' she mumbled underneath her breath as she walked away.

'Sarah,' he purred slowly, prompting her to turn around and freeze, only to then kick herself for obeying his call so easily. She couldn't help it. She knew he was a fish out of water, kicking at everything out of fear more than genuine anger or distrust of her.

He closed the gap between them and peered searchingly into her eyes, looking for a sign of forgiveness or just patience.

'I apologize for my frightful behavior earlier,' he said softly as he took both of her hands in his. 'You have been the most wonderful host, you truly have been, and I owe you a great deal of gratitude.'

She shrugged her quivering shoulders and pretended it was nothing, refusing to admit how upset he had made her.

'I don't want you to leave,' she breathed. 'Luke, he worries. He didn't mean to insult you. And just because I'm his mother doesn't mean I approve of or agree with what he said.'

'Thank you,' he whispered as he raised her hand to her cheek and and placed an ever so gentle kiss upon her nose before slowly locking her into an embrace that made her want to weep with relief.

'That doesn't mean I approve of your behavior either,' she added. 'Nor my own.'

He chuckled and gently rubbed her back.

'You've done so much for me Sarah,' he continued while she breathed in his scent and grew utterly preoccupied by thesudden unforeseen yet delicious gentle pulse between her legs, begging desperately for release with every slight movement of his body against hers.

'Oh dear,' she mused, stiffening completely as he pulled back and gazed into her eyes.

'I would love for you and the children to help me, but I'm afraid it really could be dangerous.'

He looked at the garage and inhaled sharply, obviously intimidated by the task which lay before him.

'There is some highly complicated technology in those boxes. I simply can't take the risk of allowing you in there.'

'Can you tell me what it is?' She asked, truly hoping this time that he would confide in her.

He smiled warmly. Happily. A smile that, despite revealing little, was somehow enough. A smile that reassured her and was able to reinstate the little trust she had perhaps lost in him over the course of these last few days.

'Everything,' he whispered.

'The universe.'

She gave him a confused smile as their hands once again found each other.

'The universe?' she asked as they both stared at the garage.

He simply nodded.

'The universe.'

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

Sarah rose to her feet as Marianne approached her with great concern.

'Sarah!' she cried while staring tentatively at the gaping hole in the roof.

'I'm alright,' the journalist said while raising a hand. 'Got more of a fright than anything else.'

Marianne shook her head and smiled.

'You are amazing,' she said. 'Is there anything that can knock you off kilter?'

Sarah attempted to smile, but couldn't. There was too little time left for pleasantries.

'Let's get going, shall we? You write those numbers down and I'll continue looking for that 'bomb box'. We better find it before those things get back here.'

'Paaaaaswooooooooord,' the bird once again squawked, now perched atop the vertical screen of the pinball table while both women resumed their plan.

As Marianne finished writing the long serial of random numbers on her hand, her eyes focused upon a map named 'visitors'. For a moment, she threw a shrewd glance towards Sarah, as if to make absolutely sure the journalist was preoccupied elsewhere. Then, she clicked the folder.

Sarah looked around. Panic rapidly engulfing her as she had no idea of where the dead man's switch could possibly be located.

'Sarah Jane,' Marianne said dryly.

'Come and have a look at this.'

'Do you have the code?' Sarah asked.

The younger blonde woman nodded and showed Sarah her own scribbled upon palm without taking her eyes off the computer screen.

'Then what is it?' Sarah asked while approaching her. 'We have to hurry and I have no idea where I'm supposed to find that switch.'

It didn't take long for Sarah's mouth to drop as soon as she saw what was on the screen. Pictures of her past. Pictures of her family. Information regarding everything that she had ever done. School results, confidential UNIT documents, articles she had written, parking tickets… her entire life.

'Suppose they just wanted to do their research before letting us in here, eh?' Marianne whispered.

'What?' Sarah huffed, clearly miffed at this intrusion of privacy.

'Don't worry,' Marianne added as she closed the folder and opened the one with her own name on it. 'I received the same treatment. They have everything. Even a copy of my birth certificate, look.'

Sarah shook her head in disbelief as she saw the birth certificate. Marianne Tracy Holden, born May 24th 1981.

'Unbelievable,' Sarah sighed angrily. 'Still, at least they didn't include any childhood or family pictures in your file. I can't believe they have school photographs of my children, how did they get these?'

Marianne shrugged as she quickly closed the file and looked at Sarah in a secretive manner.

'Shall we look at Mark's?' she asked while already opening the file.

'Not exactly a question, was it?' Sarah whispered while returning her attention to the screen.

As a collection of ID's opened themselves within the file, Sarah's jaw dropped. 'Daniel Maguire' in which the man she had come to know as Mark Turner was pictured wearing thick glasses. 'Ethan Malone' as whom he apparently had a beard. 'Anthony Hulson White'. A Canadian stockbroker, 'Lorenzo Scuderi'. An Italian art dealer. 'Marcel Van Dijck'… the alter egos just kept coming.

'Oh my God,' Marianne murmured as she closed the folder and stared at the desktop.

'Only two kinds of people maintain that habit as far as I know of… Sarah?'

Sarah grabbed onto Marianne's seat feeling as if she was about to faint.

'Ramsey was talking about Mark,' she mumbled while rubbing her eyes and attempting to keep her breathing even. 'It's him.'

For a moment, the room started spinning around her. How could she have been so foolish. He had been right there, standing next to her the whole time. Charming his way towards her complete trust and managing to get it.

'Sarah, it's okay,' Marianne attempted as the journalist appeared ready to throw up. 'Here have a seat.'

'It's not alright,' Sarah stammered as she sat down. 'He killed Karlsson. He killed him for the pods. After we spied on Karlsson last night, he just killed him.'

'Sarah, listen to me. We have to focus, alright? You can't be sure about any of that… Mark is a nice guy, and besides…'

'Besides what?' Sarah asked. 'I've spent my life meeting charming people responsible for horrible things.'

Marianne sighed and placed her hand upon Sarah's shoulder in support.

'Look… It doesn't matter right now. We have to detonate those thermobaric weapons like your friend said. Stop wasting your time on Mark, he's probably…'

She hesitated, no doubt aware of how cool she was sounding.

'… Let's face it. He got injected by that thing on Ramsey's chest,' she continued nonetheless. 'He's probably turned into one of those things already. We will do as your friend sad, and then you have to go get him.'

Sarah looked up at the younger woman, surprised she was telling her exactly what she had been planning.

Marianne smiled.

'I'm not blind. Any woman could see how much he means to you. And I'm not stupid either… I saw you desperately search the plans of this hellhole for a way to get to him. I could help.'

Sarah shook her head in disapproval.

'Absolutely not. You have no way of getting up and down that many stairs and ladders with your ankle. Besides, I wouldn't risk your life even if you could. You're getting yourself out of here as fast as possible… and him too.'

She gestured at Edison, prompting a smile from the young biologist.

'READY TO LAUNCH?' a robotic voice emanating from the speakers suddenly demanded loudly, causing both women to back away from the computer in fright.

'No!' Sarah cried, assuming the computer was referring to the bombs.

'READY TO LAUNCH?' it repeated as a colorful screen popped up.

'Oh for crying out loud,' Marianne hissed at the computer while Sarah closed in on the screen and was greeted by an animated amusing looking alien bugger aboard his spaceship, waving at her enthusiastically.

'What the…' Sarah whispered.

Without hesitation, the martian flew off and immediately landed upon the surface of a 3D pinball table, climbed out of his ship, and pointed at the big red button to his left side.

'READY TO LAUNCH?' the tiny fellow asked once again, eliciting a sharp sigh of relief from both women watching him.

'It's just Artie's pinball game,' Marianne sighed. 'Ramsey was complaining about it earlier in the elevator, remember?'

As Marianne reminded her, Sarah's head slowly turned towards the actual material pinball table standing against the wall, and rose from her seat. As she closed in on the table, Edison stared at her. As soon as she halted, the bird began bopping his head.

'Paaaasswooord,' he urged once again.

'Sarah?'

'If Artie was playing pinball on there,' she said pointing at the computer. 'Then what's that doing there?'

She ran towards the table and immediately began inspecting it.

'Password. Password. Password.' Edison squawked enthusiastically, obviously pleased with Sarah's findings as he began bopping his head downward once more.

'Down?' Sarah asked of the colorful bird while crouching to her knees, eliciting more nods from the parrot.

'Sarah, what are you doing, we have a repository to blow up and that thing doesn't even function,' Marianne fretted.

'Difficult for the poor thing to function without a socket anywhere near it,' the journalist replied holding the machine's cable up in the air.

'I wouldn't do that,' Marianne suddenly protested, causing Sarah to look at her suspiciously.

'What if it's a trap?' Marianne suggested while Sarah lowered herself underneath the table as if it were a car that needed fixing.

'Be careful!' Marianne begged as approached Sarah, obviously burdened by the fact the older woman was lying down underneath the thing. 'If there is something vile in there, don't come complaining to me.'

'Good boy, Edison!' Sarah suddenly cried victoriously.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

For three days he had been hard at work while she had attempted to resume her normal life. She had avoided calls and e-mails from the few people who had been aware of her visit to the mysterious Vault, and had likely attempted to contact her under the impression she had returned with wonderful stories of human ingenuity. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the place had never even existed to begin with, and in an odd way, it was a relief. She didn't even want to consider the amount of public attention and scrutiny she would have had to endure otherwise. Yet, a handful of people were a handful too many.

With Luke off to Oxford, and Sky back in school, the house had been so peaceful during the day that she often felt as though it had been floating high above the earth, away from everything familiar. Away from every worry, although there were so many things to worry about. Near everything she had wanted fors o many years, although she knew it couldn't last.

The Doctor had been uncharacteristically generous with his time and patience in between long sessions of focusing on what he referred to as 'his building kit', and had wasted no time in conquering Sky's heart with his stories and his silliness, not to mention his ability to explain every page of her homework to her in a way that made a mockery of human teaching methods. Sky had an inventive and brilliant mind, but her brain had not been able to compute the literal and the scientific in the same neat fashion Luke had been able to do from the day he was born.

By human standards and grades, Luke was a genius. By those same human standards, Sky was hopeless. Her mind was a jumble of everything all at once, often making it difficult for her to make sense of, or recognize the limited information patterns and methods humans applied to make sense of the universe.

Sky's mind made use of an entirely different set of tools to make sense of everything around her. She was a brilliant girl, able to solve even the most complicated of scientific problems in practice, yet was unable to translate that brilliance into a theoretical language human teachers could comprehend, earning her the obvious 'lazy' stamp on her forehead as she was accused of writing down gobbledigook accompanied by odd doodles on her exams.

The Doctor however, could understand her ways of collecting, identifying, and organizing information, thereby also enabling him to help her convert those methods into the human way of doing the same. The two had formed a heartwarming friendship within the few hours they had shared, and it made Sarah love him even more.

And yet, with her, even after the moments intimacy, he had remained his socially awkward alien self, often too frightened, stubborn, or distracted to look her in the eye. For three days, she had wanted to tell him that everything was fine. That she forgave him. That she craved his company free from guilt or things left unsaid. That she wanted her old Doctor back, and yet, every time he walked in and out of the house, she somehow didn't.

On the night of the third day however, he leaned against the door frame of the sitting room, smiling as he watched her reading a book.

'Tea?' she asked softly.

'Not right now,' he replied in an en equally soft tone that instantly made her feel self-conscious.

'There is something I would like to show you.'

'Any clues?' Sarah asked while taking off her reading glasses and closing her book.

'It's in the garage.'

She suppressed a gasp end settled for a smile instead as he walked over and kneeled down in front of her.

'You finished your secret little project then, did you?' she asked calmly.

He nodded in silence and gazed into her eyes while his own revealed so much love and gratitude that she had to keep herself in a mental stranglehold in order to stop her lips from finding his. What if they did though? Would he duck? Or would he wait to run away until after?

'I think I did,' he smiled.

'May require some gentle prodding here and there,' he purred. 'But, yes, it's ready.'

Sarah took her chance to swallow hard as soon as his eyes diverted from hers for a split second. When he returned his gaze towards hers, she suddenly felt extremely hot.

'Your gaze could melt an elephant,' she mused as all she could do was remain semi-conscious in front of him.

Then, without a word of warning, he erased the whether-to-kiss-Timelord-or-not-to-kiss-Timelord question from her mind and guided his inviting lips towards her right cheek, barely grazing his chilly but soft skin against hers before briefly staring into her eyes and revealing a moment's doubt. Pain even.

He cocked his head like a puppy and gently caressed her bottom lip with his thumb as if he were too frightened to jump in head first with his mouth yet desperately wanted to know how they felt.

Sarah smiled reassuringly.

Once again he reminded her of his 'otherness.' The look on his face a mixture of childlike curiosity and ancient suffering while he was playing with a woman's mouth as if it were a precious diamond. Suddenly, he lowered his hand and closed his eyes so tightly it looked like he had burnt them somehow. As if he had been forced to mentally scold himself in order to keep himself from kissing her passionately. Instead of moving closer, he pulled back and rose to his feet, leaving Sarah confused, but mostly worried.

''Do you want to come and have a look?' he asked as if nothing had happened.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you so much for the kind reviews. They certainly help keep the motivation level up. It's often a mystery whether people are somewhat enjoying the story and it's most awesome to know that some of you are. Thank you very very much!**

**This part of the story has some made up Tardis mythology in it, so I apologize to the people who know more about that part of the show's actual facts and don't like me making up stuff like that.**

**Bannerman Road **

**Present**

'Keep your eyes closed, Sarah,' he whispered in her ear. 'Almost there.'

Truth was that in that moment, not a single hair on her head was even remotely interested in what he was about to show her. Her mind had been left behind in the sitting room, trying to analyze the very moment wherein for once, he seemed ready to surrender to his most inner feelings, and yet, hadn't.

Was it her fault? Had she somehow given him the impression that she disapproved? That every fiber of her body hadn't begged for him to lean closer and kiss her?

As soon as he had guided her into the garage, she was greeted by a low and comforting hum. A familiar and comforting sound that, while ever so subtle in volume, was unequivocally revealing.

'Oh,' Sarah gasped, her eyes still firmly closed.

'The universe,' he had said. She could have known, really. Had she not been so preoccupied by the unfolding drama between them these last few days, she could have guessed. And yet, it was difficult to believe. Impossible almost.

'Open your eyes,' he whispered as he placed a reassuring hand on the small of her back.

There, in the dimly lit garage of 13 Bannerman Road, stood that which had been feared lost.

Still, Sarah didn't gasp. She didn't feign surprise or excitement. The moment merely clicked into place in her brain as if she had always known it would happen. As if she had always been relieved by it. As if she had always feared it.

His blue ticket out of her life, and back into his own.

The Tardis, though hooked up to a frightening and crude device, stood proud and tall next to aunt Lavinia's old desk. As if nothing whatsoever had ever happened to it.

The device standing next to the Tardis however, was what immediately peaked the journalists' interest. It somewhat resembled a late nineteenth century dynamo with high voltage components, several rotor wheels with Gallifreyan symbols, and an odd appendage which she would have branded as some kind of microscope slash telescope. All in all though, it looked like a scrap metal sculpture made by an artistic welder.

'What is that?' Sarah pointed at the machine, clearly intrigued.

'Go on,' he whispered with an encouraging smile. 'Have a look.'

As she moved closer towards the device, she noticed it was merely its 'exoskeleton' that would have appeared as primitive to the human eye. Inside of it however, something else entirely was at work. As Sarah closed the distance between herself and the otherworldly machine, a soft yellowish hue began spilling through the openings of its hard casing, soon illuminating the entire garage in the same color before joining the Tardis in its familiar hum.

It was as though the Blue Box and the generator were meditating in unison, prompting Sarah to suddenly feel more relaxed than she had in days, weeks, months perhaps.

She noticed a thin, slowly pulsing membrane. Within it, something that resembled a… well… a universe wrapped in a blob.

'It's a Type 40 CCH.'

'Of course it is,' Sarah replied matter-of-factly.

He chuckled as he put his arm around her, the warmth of his body drawing a suppressed shudder from hers.

'I suppose it would make more sense if I used the term 'womb'?.

'A Tardis womb?' Sarah asked carefully.

'A TT capsule womb,' he corrected.

She gave him a confused look, but smiled nonetheless.

'I feel so relaxed, it's like it knows I'm…'

'It does know you are here. And it can sense how you feel. You see, Sarah.. Capsule wombs are like…'

He reached for an analogy that would make some sort of sense to her human mind, unfamiliar with the near infinite possibilities of Timelord engineering and its applications.

'Actual human wombs wrapped in crude exterior?' Sarah tried.

'Kind of… but it's a little bit more complicated than that. Every Capsule Womb is unique, just like every TT Capsule or Tardis is unique. Every womb can only produce and care for one Tardis. It will simply refuse to be linked to a Tardis it didn't help create.'

'So… this is the Tardis' mother?'

The Doctor chuckled.

'Not quite. On Gallifrey, Tardises are only built in a lab up to a certain point. After that, they grow themselves… like test tube babies, yes?'

Sarah nodded.

'The finished sentient nucleus of every Tardis, which is only about the size of a marble, is placed into its own womb. The womb then helps it grow, and within a few hours, the womb begins projecting the Tardis outwards through these lifelines.'

He pointed at the set of thick cables. Or tubes rather.

'After a day or two the Tardis is finished, and then…'

'The umbilical chord is cut,' Sarah mumbled.

'Exactly! The womb let's go of its Tardis and goes into hibernation again. However, when a Tardis suffers such severe damage that her very… soul is damaged , the womb is often the final option. She can help the Tardis process what happened to her, almost like a councelor. It helps re-direct the constant flow of information so that she is able to structurally mend herself to the exact form she was before she suffered her breakdown. My Tardis and that crude looking thing as you call it… are in a way… soulmates.'

'That's wonderful,' Sarah whispered.

'And we have you to thank for it,' he said. 'The device you gave me?'

Sarah nodded.

'The Tardis 'consciousness was trapped in there. Just in time I was able to open these crates too, because she couldn't have survived in there for much longer.'

Sarah chuckled.

That's why the device had refused to open for her. Had she been able to release the Tardis into her sitting room, who knows what would have happened. Her house could have been the size of St. Paul's Cathedral by now.

'What is it?' The Doctor asked, amused himself by his friend's sudden lightheartedness.

'I tried to open it,' she giggled. 'It just stung me.'

'You what?' the Doctor demanded, feigning anger.

'Well if it makes you feel better, it hurt quite a lot, I think it stole a bit of flesh too, judging by the small crater in my thumb.'

'DNA test,' he deadpanned. 'The device was triggered to open solely for Timelord DNA.'

'Of course it was,' she sighed before looking at the womb once more.

'I feel like… it's helping me relax.'

'I know,' he nodded.

'That's because you are part of the Tardis as well Sarah. You are imprinted upon her memory forever. As soon as the womb sensed you, it recognized you. Her sole reason for being is to help and soothe every atom the Tardis has ever known. That includes both of us.'

Sarah smiled warmly back at him, admiring how much love he nurtured for the Tardis.

'And she was in those boxes?'

'Her and a load of other things. Tools mostly. Those cables. She'll need some manual tinkering before I can take her anywhere…'

'Anything else?'

'Some of my clothes as well as a journal.'

He looked at her beggingly all of a sudden.

'I don't understand it either, Sarah. At least not entirely. Please believe me.'

Sarah nodded and closed the distance between them.

'I believe you,' she said while caressing his cheek, prompting him to look at his feet rather guiltily.

'What is it?' she whispered.

'There's just… always this feeling,' he began. 'Like a memory or a dream. Something that makes me feel as though I was in that Vault before. I had it when I arrived there as well.'

'I know you told me we spoke on the moni-'

Sarah's eyed widened as she remembered her own dream while she spoke.

'Like I saved you from there once before. I can hardly explain it.'

Sarah nodded.

'I know,' she stammered, prompting a confused look from the Timelord.

'I have been having this dream. Like you say, perhaps it's a memory. That you are there, in the Vault. Except it's another you because this you is unconscious, just as you really were. I see the Tardis being torn to shreds by the Krynoid and I try to yell; I try to wake you up, but you don't. Right before I pass out, I can always hear the sound of the Tardis. A second Tardis. And then there's you. And I can't be certain, but I think it's your former you.'

'What does it mean?' he breathed wile still nodding his head in agreement.

'Perhaps it doesn't mean anything,' Sarah offered. 'Except that this was always going to happen. That you being here was inevitable.'

'Nothing is inevitable, Sarah.'

She shook her head and huffed. Genuine irritation displayed upon her features as he turned away from her and ran his fingers through his hair in confusion.

'Why must you always do this?' she demanded after allowing him briefly to ponder over the situation.

'What?'

'Pretend like everything that happens in your life can be reduced to a neat formula. Like everything has to be reduced to some mechanical contraption you have to be able to control. Perhaps some things just happen.'

'You don't think this is important? We have been sharing the exact same dream and you want to just pretend like it's a coincidence? Well, Miss Smith, if that isn't utterly unhumanlike. You're the ones always insisting upon seeing patterns everywhere. Mistaking coincidences for fate and piling a false sense of importance upon the shoulders of meaninglessness. You're always…'

'That's enough,' she warned coldly.

Her eyes rested upon the humming womb.

How could she explain what she felt? 'I'm a journalist,' she thought. 'I should be able to say what I mean.'

Yet when it came to him, it was always easy as pie to comprehend her feelings, yet so difficult to convey them in a manner that didn't reduce or cheapen the emotion behind them.'

'I only have one life,' she began softly while locked her fingers with his. 'For us, one life is already so complicated. So… unfathomable. You can't expect me to want to spend the time I have with you to work out what happened in your former lives as well as the ones yet to come.'

She hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much sense she was making to him. Had she sounded cold? Had she told him too much? She awaited his reaction.

'I know that can sound selfish. I know that may sound like I don't care about your worries, but…'

Again, she fell short of the right words.

'Go on,' he urged ever so gently while tucking a strand of loose hair behind her left hear. 'I'm listening.'

'I would have spend the rest of my life with you,' she breathed. Why Not. Why not blurt it all out.

'I would have untangled every knot and solved every problem with you. Instead, I have to compress all the years that could have been in however long it will take for you to leave me again. Perhaps it's selfish of me, but I am tired of analyzing every why and how of your being here. I don't want to waste this gift by taking it apart in order to find out how it was constructed. I just want to enjoy it. I'm sure that one day you'll get your answers.'

He caught a stray tear rolling down her cheek with his thumb and inhaled sharply. For a moment, they imply stood motionless, looking at one another.

'My Sarah,' he smiled, gently guiding her even closer towards him.

'What if these are the last moments the universe will allow us?' she asked before he locked her into n embrace.

He didn't say a word. He didn't nod, nor did he shake his head. For a moment, it was as though she was holding on to an empty vessel. A shell.

'I didn't want to figure out why I wanted to…' he attempted before another few seconds of silence arose.

She leaned back and smiled lazily. 'Go on. I'm listening as well.'

'Earlier, in the sitting room. I just so desperately wanted to… And I'll never want to figure out why. Not this. Not you. I'll never want to reduce what I'm feeling to a formula… I can't even manage tot think of words that would come close to describing that desire.'

'What desire?' she asked tremulously.

He didn't reply. Instead he gazed into her eyes and cautiously guided his lips towards hers.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

Sarah peered down into the depth of the shaft. It was without a doubt, the single most gigantic and noisy ventilation system she had ever seen. Wide as an entire house, and so deep she couldn't decide whether or not she could even see the bottom through the sets of huge double ventilation wheels she would have to pass every now and then. Luckily, there would be no need to turn them off, as enough room was left to descend the seemingly endless series of ladders beside them.

The place was cold. Not merely in temperature, but in appearance. The rough concrete and steel construction had grown moist by the cold, and the smeel left her nostrils in permanent state of disgust.

She was quickly reminded of Donkey Kong as she noticed how each time she would succeed climbing down one ladder, she would have to run towards the other end of that bridge to reach the next one.

Perhaps it was a safety measure, but an unfortunate one considering the situation. There wasn't much time.

'Right,' she sighed as she grabbed hold of the railing and began the long descent towards her Doctor.

With each step, she hoped Marianne and Edison would be okay. But most of all, she hoped her Timelord hadn't turned into a frozen cube.

Marianne had timed the bombs while Sarah had managed, after a little struggle, to put Edison into a cardboard box with a blanket, hoping all the while the tropical bird would somehow manage through the cold that awaited him.

'Who drags a parrot into this climate?' she had grunted, quickly feeling guilty for going on about a dead man's business.

After that, they had immediately left the hub and had driven towards the ladder Ramsey had pointed towards upon their arrival. The ladder that would lead her towards the ventilation system, the greenhouse, its freezer, and eventually, the Doctor.

'Once,' she order herself as she hurried down each step while maintaining a tight grip on the side rails. Once would she allow herself to replay the events in her mind. Once would she allow herself to worry about Marianne and that wonderful colorful bird who had pointed her towards the dead man's switch. Once. As of now, she would have to concentrate on the task at hand and nothing else.

With each glance downward, the disappointment of not seeing the bottom grew deeper, along with the fear of being burnt alive in the blast that had become inevitable ever since Marianne had entered the code and flipped the switch.

'Stop thinking about that!' she ordered herself. 'Just hurry. He needs you.'

She quickly decided it would be best to stop looking down. After all, the less one waits for something to happen, the sooner it will, or at least that's what people said.

A she passed the first set of ventilators, she held her breath. The sound was so overwhelming she felt as though her lungs would pop, prompting her to cover her ears as soon as she landed upon the bridge suspended right beside them.

'Who designed this place?' she complained to herself as she made her way towards the next ladder on the other end, holding tight onto the edge as the ventilators attempted to pull her towards them.

'Might as well tie a stone to my ankles,' she grunted.

The painful noise decreased toward a more acceptable volume as she put some distance between herself and the ventilators. Pretty soon however, she would have to make her way past another set of the loud monsters. Yet to her own surprise, that piece of knowledge didn't manage to dampen her resolve. Instead, she only began to lower herself more quickly.

She had been climbing for awhile now, yet sill couldn't see the bottom in the dimply lit concrete shaft.

'Come on, Smith!' she screamed in order to motivate herself as she jumped onto the next bridge and ran towards the other end.

'Wait, Smith!' A second voice hissed through the echoes of her own voice.

As if some external force were operating her with a remote, and had pressed 'pause', Sarah Jane Smith froze.

Slowly, she turned her head upwards and peered off into the distance, her vision obstructed by the massive spinning fan wheels a long way above her head.

Nothing.

She ordered her legs into motion as soon as she had decided the place had driven her insane.

'There's no one there,' she whispered to herself as she grabbed hold of the next set of side rails and continued her descent.

Suddenly, she thought about the procession of action films in which men with six packs would slide themselves down ladders just like these by pressing their feet against the sides. A nervous giggle escaped her throat as she considered the chances of her Doctor being able to do that. More out of fear than for the sake of mental entertainment.

'Probably land on his bottom,' she decided with a wide grin. He wasn't built for flashy action like that. Too tall and gangly and downright awkward. Gracious like a ballet dancer in his every day demeanor and movement, yes. But mostly just effectively clumsy where moments of action were concerned.

Her stream of thought was aggressively halted by the familiar racket of the next set of fans beneath her, prompting her to roll her eyes with anger.

Then, once again, through the noise, she wore she could hear someone scream her name, followed by an echoing rattle that swept all doubt under the table.

Someone was in there with her.

She glanced up to immediately regret that decision as she saw what was staring down at her through the grid in between the two fan wheels above her.

'Mark,' she gasped as he mouthed her name. His mutated form was still somewhat recognizable, but nevertheless it startled her.

For a moment, she froze. Unable to move while her brain attempted to communicate with her limbs. As soon as the neurological command had reached her knees, she didn't waste a second. She abandoned the ladder and jumped onto the next bridge.

This time, the pull of the vents couldn't restrain her. She raced towards the next ladder like a woman possessed, re-discovering a strength which had been hidden for years, and taking no time to consider her safety as she pulled her sleeves around her palms, grabbed hold of the side rails and slid down the ladder at a heart stopping speed that wasn't nearly fast enough to deliver her with some sense of relief.

'Faster,' she screamed internally.

Then as if by sorcery, she glanced down and could see the floor beneath her, the sound of the next set of fans already welcoming as she slid down another ladder.

She gazed up, trembling as she saw how Mark began his pursuit of her. He didn't bother sliding down the ladders. He jumped. From bridge to bridge. With a stealth that left her breathless.

'Saraaaah,' she heard him hiss through his mutated teeth, prompting her spine to tighten as her feet hit the grid of the next bridge.

She imagined him right behind her, grabbing hold of her hair, pulling her towards him as she descended another ladder and felt the next set of fans suck her clothes towards them.

'Last set,' she told herself as she made her way past them and ran across the bridge.

'Sarah, please,' the creature she once trusted screeched with great insistance as he jumped onto the fans right above her.

Sarah didn't waste time. She did the same. She jumped down the final ladder, grateful to land on her feet rather painlessly as she ran towards the bright red windowed door in front of her and soniced the lock.

As she opened the door, her heart stopped.

A hand had reached her.

'Sarah plea-'

She couldn't suppress the deafening scream that came out of her mouth, accompanied by a cold sweat as she took in the state of him. A lugubrious form of pleasure written across his… face.

There was was no time to talk this out. She reached for her lipstick and pointed it towards the creature's face. When the familiar beam resounded through the shaft, it was soon joined by loud inhuman screams as Mark fell to what was left of his human knees.

It didn't take him long to recover however. As soon as the sonic beam had ended, and Sarah closed the door behind her, he began banging the door like a demon possessed. Shouting her name as he glared at her through the window.

She looked into his eyes, suddenly overwhelmed by the onset of heavy tears. His eyes which were once so blue, were now yellow and bloodshot. Demonic.

As she backed away from the door, he calmed himself down and gently placed his green 'hand' upon the window.

'Sarah, please open the door,' he gurgled.

'Nice try,' she whispered as she turned away, breathing heavily as she shed a few burning tears.

Before her, a dark corridor…

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Her muscles tightened as he slowly slid her shirt down her shoulders while carefully allowing his tongue to meet with hers. She trembled slightly as the warm piece of fabric fell to the floor, baring her sensitive skin to the coolness of the garage.

'Perhaps it's too cold here,' he whispered into her mouth, prompting a slight chuckle from Sarah, who was pleasantly surprised he had noticed the subtle shiver of her arms.

'It's a bit chilly, yes,' she replied as their mouths and bodies separated and he allowed the back of his fingers to graze their way down her abdomen, eliciting a barely audible gasp from Sarah as she raised her chin with delight and allowed herself to scan his face for a reaction.

'But I'm more than warm enough.'

Whatever insecurity she had harbored when he had begun undoing the buttons of her shirt evaporated entirely as she noticed the look in his bright blue eyes. It was a look she had never seen before. Not in the eyes of human men, nor in those of her Timelord.

Something mercurial and volatile, though he was gentle and comforting as a woolen blanket. Something dangerous, though she knew she had nothing to fear. A childlike curiosity that grew more and more aroused with each minimal reaction of her body evoked by the slightest touch of his graceful fingers. A look of love, care, and protection that for years she had told herself had been imagined; had been nothing more than wishful thinking on her part, yet now proved that neither her imagination or her wishful thinking had been bold enough. For as soon as his gaze exchanged the skin of her neck for her eyes, she knew he loved her more than she had ever allowed herself to conceive.

She rested her hands on either side of his face and guided him towards hers, catching his bottom lip between her own as he placed his own hands on the small of her back.

He snorted with growing amusement as she carefully sucked and nibbled his lower lip; something she had wanted to do ever since she had first examined his new features post regeneration, and proved to indeed be incredibly enjoyable, yet was somehow hysterically funny to him, as proven by snorts quickly turning into the unsuccessful suppression of low giggles. Were they nervous giggles? The kind that scream 'What the hell is she doing?'. Perhaps he wasn't enjoying it as much as she was.

She gently nabbed his lip between her teeth and grinned, waiting for the Timelord to finally surrender to a now seemingly inevitable burst of laughter.

Instead however, a disappointed frown settled upon his features.

'Don't,' he whined like a disappointed toddler.

'Mmm?' Sarah inquired innocently.

'Don't stop,' he moaned beggingly, his lower lip still caught between hers.

'How fascinating,' Sarah mused silently while she ran her fingers through his lush curls and kissed him passionately. 'Mental note: Silly Timelord giggles during kissing is very good.'

As he ran his fingers across her stomach once more, he placed a gentle kiss upon her nose and allowed his hands to guide his entire body around hers, from abdomen to hips to spine; prompting said body part to submit to a delicious shiver running across its entire length as he pulled her into him, allowing her back to rest against his chest and share his every breath. The shiver intensified, percolated, and trickled its way towards her loins as soon as his fingers explored the bare skin underneath the hem of her jeans and followed a there hidden trail all the way towards the front.

She rested her hands upon his wrists as he kissed her right shoulder and unfastened the rigid button on her jeans. With every second, she grew more impatient. While ridding her feet of the evening slippers around them, the movement of her own legs only intensified the frantic yearning between them.

She undid her zipper and once again guided his hands towards the hem of her jeans, silently urging him to help her rid herself from their restraint.

He quickly complied by placing his hands inside of her back pockets and gently tugging the fabric downward, planting a trail of soft kisses along the length of her back while doing so before caressing his way back upward. Her bare feet stepped out of the pile of jeans and onto the cold dark tiles made warm by the heat of her toes and heels.

Once again he pulled her near, embracing her with his warmth as he whispered against her ear.

'I'm sorry,'

'What for?'

'That I couldn't be here sooner.'

She turned in his embrace and placed a knowing kiss upon his chin, smiling lazily as she relished how beautiful he looked in that moment. Shy yet assured. Careful yet determined. His mouth opened slightly. His eyes sparkling in the darkness, with an intensity that seemed to illuminate the short distance between them.

'Don't think about that,' she whispered as she began undoing the buttons on his shirt. 'Time has played enough of its tricks on us. I don't want to let another second slip through our fingers.'

'Sarah, I…'

'No,' she breathed as she placed her index finger upon his lips.

'I know that you're not here to stay,' she continued. 'And that scares me more than I could ever manage to put into words.'

'We don't have to do this,' he said as he caressed her cheek. 'Perhaps it will only make things worse for both of us.'

She undid the final button and slid the shirt from his shoulders, absorbing the beautiful sight laid bare before her.

'Knowing what I'll have to miss?' she whispered tremulously.

He nodded.

'That counts for both of us.'

She smiled sadly.

'It's too late for that,' she said while placing her hands upon his chest.

'I already know,' she continued in between kisses. 'Why not give me everything at this point? You can take it away tomorrow and I'll understand. I've already forgiven you for breaking my heart as soon as you step into that box.'

For a moment, she looked down as she awaited his response.

'I'll come back,' he said after a pause that seemed to last forever.

He carefully raised her chin.

'As much as I can, I promise.'

She smiled, grateful for his words, knowing it wouldn't be possible.

As soon as their lips reunited, it no longer mattered. They were this moment. The losses of past, present, and future were meaningless. They weren't counted, remembered, or considered. In that moment, they were denied entry to reality.

She smiled against his mouth as she undid his trouser button, allowed her hands to roam towards his backside and slowly lowered the underneath the hem of his boxers, eliciting a barely audible moan from the man she loved.

The alien who had saved entire constellations and had shouted words of justice into the faces of dictators and madmen. The unearthly being who intellectually outranked the greatest minds humanity had ever known by a considerable margin. The creature who could be just as awestruck by a little shrub as by a planet made of gold.

'I love you, Sarah,' he whispered, breaking up her stream of thought. She gladly surrendered it.

'And I love you...,' she answered while gently tugging down his underwear.

The mighty Timelord, reduced to shivers by the touch of her skin against his.

'... so much.'


	10. Chapter 10

As I don't wish to take false credit for Leonard Cohen's genius, I must say that the selected lines from the song Sarah is singing towards the end are his words and his words alone. (Coming Back To You by L. Cohen)

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

His breath never quickened. Not once.

Not while gazing back into her eyes as she gently lowered herself onto him, straddling his lap and moaning softly as her wet lips brushed against his earlobe. Nor when she arched her back and introduced the first beat of an ancient rhythm which transcended all of time and space.

He didn't pant when she rested her forehead upon his, their sweat mingling while she wrapped her legs 'round his warm waist, her feet resting on the cool tiles, and her fingers locked 'round his damp curls.

His chest rose and fell like a metronome keeping time, making her wonder just for a second, whether his mind was even there with her. Whether perhaps he was enjoying their lovemaking on a spiritual plane entirely hermetic from the physical. Whether he was somewhere she could never go.

'Doctor,' she managed between tremulous breaths; rocking her hips more slowly as she lifted his chin, kissing the bridge of his nose before speaking.

'Doctor.'

His eyes opened slowly, nearly blinding her with their intensity.

'Where are you?' she whispered while letting her fingers trail across his chest, causing his his lower lip to tremble with a mix of both obvious pleasure and suppressed nervosity.

'I'm right here, Sarah.'

She guided her lips towards his, kissing him passionately while slightly amplifying the beat of their dance.

'I'm right here with you.'

He let his fingers wander across her legs while kissing her collarbone, supporting her back with one hand as he leaned forward and explored the sensitive skin at the base of her left breast, allowing his mouth to travel upwards along the curve and towards the areola. A surge of intense pleasure reached her loins when he reached the tender nub located in its center, eliciting something between a gasp and a soft moan from her throat.

Waves of pleasure rolled towards her, threatening to scoop her up; seducing her; yet always retreating at the last possible second, only to gain strength with every flick of his tongue before continuing their chase.

She wanted to wait. Wanted them to catch her. Wanted to drown in their sweet bliss.

It wasn't that she had considered the meager amount of sex she had had with previous lovers, who hardly qualified as lovers, as tremendous disappointments. No. That would have been unfair. None of them had been horrendous experiences or failures she ever regretted. Not at all. In fact all of them had been decent men who had respected her. Perfect matches in the eyes of most other women probably. Yet none of them had ever come close to delivering on the promise she had always hoped making love would be when she was younger. Never once had she been rendered truly breathless. Never once had she been able to truly free herself. Free from all the fears and worries sex had instilled in her race, and especially her sex. That freedom romantic novels had promised her when in the arms of that one perfectly perfect man.

'Hmmmm,' he whined softly.

'Hmmm,' Sarah moaned in agreement as she touched his nose with hers, gazed into his eyes, and smiled.

'You feel amazing.'

Her smiled morphed into a frown as he winced suddenly, suppressing a groan as she rocked her hips forward.

'My leg,' he began, rather embarrassed. 'I have a cramp in my leg.'

Her hips came to a halt as her chest began shaking. Barely audible giggles and snorts as he looked at her with the eyes of a begging puppy; a blush spreading across his cheeks like wildfire.

'It's okay,' she whispered as she held his cheeks and kissed his forehead. 'Try something different?'

He gave her a nod and a lazy smile and reached into the nearest crate, pulling out the purple coat she hadn't seen in nearly fourty years.

She smiled, suddenly sensing tears of happiness.

'I always loved that coat,' she said while taking it from him. 'Or perhaps I just love the way you look in it.'

He kissed her and smiled again. A smile that warmed her to the core. A smile that quickly caused the arousal between her legs to beg for release yet again.

'Are you comfortable?' he asked. 'Perhaps we ought to go inside and make use of a bed.'

She bit her lips and shook her head while spreading out the coat across the tiles behind her and between his feet.

'Come here,' she whispered while gently rising enough to untangle herself from his lap before scooting backwards onto the coat and beckoning him towards her.

Her Doctor was not that perfectly perfect guy. The worst possible match in the eyes of most other women probably. Yet as she watched how he crawled towards her and settled himself between her legs, she decided she would have fallen in love with him no matter what. He would have been able to make her heart skip as a king with a castle, or as a homeless man sleeping in a cardboard box. He would have conquered her heart no matter what.

With every sweet encouragement of his hips. With every touch of his fingers and every whiff of his enduring alien smell, the waves closed in on her. A sweet aching she had only fantasized about ever experiencing.

The cadence of their dance increased almost unnoticed. Her chest rising and falling rapidly while his upheld its consistency. Surges of pleasure encouraged by every utterance from his throat. Every note providing proof of his enjoyment and desire.

'Sarah,' he purred, locking his eyes onto hers. His bottom lip trembling again as she gently kneaded his hips and caressed his calves with her feet.

'Oh my,' she murmured as the waves were on the verge of washing over her. His chest grew heavy upon hers, only reinforcing her pleasure as she sensed the drum of his hearts increase.

Once again she gently sucked his lower lip.

His reaction this time was nowhere near approaching giggles.

Without warning, he let out the single most erotic sound she had ever heard. A half moan both needy and grateful; both begging and commanding; both frightened and greedy; prompting an immediate response from her own body.

The sudden overwhelming discharge between her legs commanded her spine to arch almost unwillingly.

She gasped for air… The intense and ongoing contractions between her legs rendering her unable to do so.

A little death, yes. For a moment she was gone. Blank. Radio waves silent. Bliss.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

The already alarming rate at which her heart was pounding increased as she made her way further into the dark tunnel. Its sole source of light, a sickening red halogen above the submarine style exit door about fifty yards ahead.

As she closed in on the steel door with a yellow snowflake caution sign, she kicked herself internally for not having brought the proper attire. Exactly how cold would it be in there? And if this particular door bothered to read 'caution: low temperature', then how cold would it be in the actual freezer?

'Never mind that,' Sarah ordered herself. 'You're going in there even if your toes freeze off.'

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes after detonation the place would go boom. Thirty, of which at least half had already passed.

She needed to hurry. She needed to defy the odds by making each second count.

As she passed a fire extinguisher and a flamethrower attached to the moist concrete wall, she flashed her lipstick towards the door. There was no mistaking what was behind it. Behind that door was an entire jungle of plant life ready to maul her to shreds or infect her. Behind that same door and and a few yards to her left, was another door. A door that when opened and entered, would reunite her with her Doctor.

'I've waited for you long enough,' she said blankly.

With every ounce of strength left in her tired and burning forearms, she turned the wheel counter-clockwise.

As she cautiously entered the greenhouse, prepared to sonic even a slightly aggressive daisy, she was immediately dumbstruck by what she saw.

Surprised that she found herself on a fairly high iron grid bridge suspended against the wall, she looked at the spectacle beneath her.

The place looked like a jungle. An actual jungle; separated by a series of more overhanging bridges, staircases, cages, and tanks, but a jungle nonetheless. A jungle. A surprisingly calm one. Almost as though they were asleep.

Sarah peeked around with great trepidation as she pressed her back against the wall, ready to ease her way towards the freezer.

Then, glancing around as she began moving her legs, her eyes rested involuntarily upon a truly terrifying scene.

'No,' she breathed while shaking her head in shock.

Off in the distance, caught between a swarm of horrendously mutated plants, the Tardis lay on its side, mauled by ravenous thick vines, its exterior all but strangled into an L shape as nearly a quarter of the top had disappeared into the 'mouth' of some dreadful looking thing which she guessed had once been a harmless albeit stinking titan arum, and now had set its mind on consuming the entire blue box. Swallowing the thing like an anaconda.

Her heart collapsed.

'Old girl,' she muttered.

As her eyes began burning with sorrow, she was quickly reminded where she had to go.

'Come on, Smith,' she commanded silently.

As soon as she moved her foot however, she caused the slightest clang to echo throughout the greenhouse.

The repetitive and revealing sound made her feel sick. She wanted to roundhouse kick herself for being so clumsy.

Without delay, the natives began to grow restless; shaking their grotesquely huge stems and thick leaves before turning their attention upwards towards the source of the sound, some of them confused as where to turn their hungry moist selves to.

'Oh dear,' Sarah breathed as her eyes darted from curious ivy to eager vine to hungry bush, all growing longer with each second, reaching up towards her, feigning innocence as if to say 'Oh hello,' only to strangle her and then suck out her innards.

She felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck… as if something else was… watching her. She looked up, slowly at first , afraid to find out what she would see.

Her spine tightened as she snapped her head upwards and was faced with a gigantic mouthlike organism looming directly above her head.

One of many similar monsters dangling from the surprisingly high ceiling. Teeth and all...

As she attempted to ease herself back towards the door, the abomination opened it's mouth further and further, its intentions quite obvious as it hissed.

As the organism leaned back and started gurgling, something inside of her prompted her legs to jump towards the door. Just as she did so, the abomination spat a substance towards the place where she had stood.

Sarah wasted no time as the rest of the jungle began piling in on her, hissing with an obvious desire to consume her, bone and all. There was no choice but to go back into the tunnel. As she looked back for a split second, she saw smoke emanating from the wall, several of its stones eaten away by the creature's apparently acidic saliva.

As she closed the door behind her, she eased to her knees and screamed as loud as her throat allowed her to. A scream not to be construed as fearful. It was pure unbridled anger which had taken over. Anger for everything that had happened.

The Tardis. Broken in half by those vile things.

How would they get out of here? The clock hadn't stopped ticking. In a little they would be dead if still here.

For a split second, she was filled with malice. The thought of the Krynoid burning up in the inevitable explosion Marianne and her had instigated prompting a slight grin to appear on her face.

She quickly reminded herself of who she was and raised her head, hoping the hatred would drain from her being.

As she glanced up, she caught sight of the flamethrower against the wall.

Without hesitation, she shuffled towards it and reached out her hand.

'No,' she breathed as she changed her mind and reached for the nitrogen based extinguisher instead.

'Right.' She said threateningly and ready for action.

'Here we go.'

She opened the door and held up the canister, prepared to extinguish even the slightest bit of grass to come near her.

Like a cowboy in a shootout, she glared at her potential cause of death, calculating each movement the plants had to offer.

As she squeezed the handle, enveloping her immediate surroundings in mist, the formerly aggressive flora abstained from attacking her and reclined to a safer place higher against the ceiling where its twin monsters still hung, some still unopened.

She eased her way over towards the freezer door and sonicked the lock while keeping her eyes on the predators.

WIth one violent pull, she opened the heavy door and braved the white steam which immediately escaped from the cracks and into the greenhouse with a loud whoosh of released pressure. She closed the door behind her and placed the extinguisher beside the door.

The first breath she took quickly warned her of the foolishness of inhaling without protection. As the cold air reached her lungs, she groaned in agony; feeling as though they were being frozen right then and there.

She would have to hurry, there was no doubt.

She was surprised at the size of the thing as she walked deeper into it, her mouth covered by her jacket. More like a gigantic warehouse devided into sections.

'How did he contact us from this place?' she wondered as she noticed how all of the electronic equipment was dead.

Each step became a greater task as she searched the freezer for the Doctor. The amount of pods and seeds in there was enough to wipe out the entire planet in a few days. Like someone had planned to do just that. She felt a pain in her chest as she took another breath. She needed to get out of here quick. A few more minutes and she'd be in trouble.

As she turned a corner, she spotted a small dying fire in the distance. Beside it, a lifeless yet unmistakeable body.

'Doctor,' she mumbled into the fabric covering her mouth.

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Propped on her left elbow, and with her right hand on his chest, she hummed a tune to the sound of his double heartbeat; smiling lazily as he drifted off to sleep.

As she glanced over at the Tardis, she grew silent. She closed her eyes as her mind traveled back to the Vault. She had been so heartbroken when she saw how the ship was being mangled, yet now that it was near to stealing him away from her again, she couldn't help but harbor slightly bitter feelings towards the blue box. She wasn't proud of it, but she couldn't deny it either.

Then again, even without it, there would have been no stopping him. He would have left at some point. Even without a time machine and stranded on planet earth… He would have left her for the Himalayas or Peru sooner or later. He had itchy feet, and there wasn't a thing anyone could do to cure that. She didn't want to cure it. It was part of why she loved him and she knew it.

She opened her eyes again to see the Doctor gazing up at her.

'I was enjoying that,' he whispered as he copied her position, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear while locking his leg between hers.

She planted a kiss upon his shoulder and smiled.

'Were you?'

He nodded.

'What was it?'

She shrugged and looked at their hands. Once again, their fingers had been been entangled without her having realized it.

'Just something that popped into my head.'

'I'd like to hear it.'

She chuckled while easing herself back onto the coat.

'No sane creature would enjoy hearing me…'

He feigned agreement knowing what she would say, and let his fingertips graze the skin between her hip and ribcage, eliciting a tremble as she finished her sentence.

'…sing.'

'Quite,' he deadpanned. 'But I do.'

He lowered his head and nuzzled her neck; locking her in an embrace while purring like a contented kitty.

With a contented sigh, Sarah ran her fingers through his curls and began half-singing half-mumbling.

'I looked for you in everyone, and they called me on that too. I lived alone but I was only coming back to you.'

She paused for a brief moment and searched his face for a reaction. The eyes of the timelord were closed.

'Carry on,' he mumbled.

For a moment she closed her eyes and kissed his hair before she obliged him.

'There are many in your life, and many still to be. Since you are a shining light, there's many that you'll see. But I have to deal with envy when you choose the precious few, who have left their pride on the other side of coming back to you.'

All went silent as she stopped singing.

'You asked for it,' she said attempting to break through the cold silence.

'Blast,' she thought to herself.

No doubt she had made him uncomfortable…

'Well, so be it!' she thought. She wanted to be honest, even if that meant sharing songs which recognized how she felt with the object of her affection, much like she had when she was a teenager. Perhaps these silly displays of human emotion were beyond understanding to him. Or perhaps he understood them just perfectly. Perhaps they merely reminded him of human naivety. The tendency to simplify complicated matters they had only yet begun to understand.

Silly.

'No,' she protested internally. They weren't silly. If they were there; if she felt them, then how could they be silly? Still her mind allowed little room to consider the possibility that a Timelord would find those words anything other than superfluous or callow.

'perhaps you and I could… do something… tomorrow,' he suggested.

'Do something?'

'Hmmmm,' he nodded.

'What did you have in mind?'

He raised himself up into a sitting position and pressed his lips into an 'o' shape, attempting to think of something. Then he shrugged.

'I'm not sure. Some… human activity devised to pass the time in an enjoyable manner. After working on the Tardis that is.'

She snorted with amusement, prompting a frown to settle on his forehead.

'That would be wonderful,' she whispered.

'Why is it funny?'

'Oh, just the way you said it. Rather makes it sound as though picnics and music and cuddling and all things wonderful were designed in a lab as opposed to experienced as enjoyable and therefore repeated. We aren't forced to enjoy them, you know. Some of us simply don't.'

His eyes darted sideways in confusion before settling back on hers with curiosity.

'Do you?'

'Depends entirely on the company or the musician.'

He nodded and smiled.

'Yes, of course.'

Sarah rose from the coat and kissed his lips.

'With the right company I find them to be overwhelmingly enjoyable. What would you like to do? Dinner, movie, theatre, concert, museum, yoga lesson?'

She kissed him before each suggestion and waited.

Then, out of nowhere, his eyes went dull. A sadness she had rarely seen had wiped the life out of them without mercy.

'All of it,' he mumbled absentmindedly before looking at her with rejuvenated determination and wonder.

'All of it with you.'


	11. Chapter 11

**Approaching the end here. I want to thank everyone who read up to this point for their patience... after such a long fic, I almost feel like apologizing. One more chapter to go after this one.**

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

Sarah's eyes flickered open to the sound of birds chirping and people laughing outside. A perfectly normal start to a perfectly normal Saturday on Bannerman Road. She stifled a yawn, and smiled as she caught a whiff of the Doctor's scent on her sheets. That, she knew all too well, was anything _but_ normal.

The previous day had been extraordinary. One she knew was a gift, and was to be cherished as such, no matter what was to happen next. She turned around, eyes closed, intending to wrap her arm around his waist. Instead her hand landed upon the bare sheets beside her.

She wasn't exactly surprised. She knew he needed little sleep. She knew he was raring to take the Tardis for a spin and still needed to complete several checkups before doing so. Still she released a sigh of displeasure.

She had managed to keep him in bed the day before, and waking up with his arms around her had proven to be just as enjoyable as she had imagined. Heavenly actually.

They had left the garage during the middle of the night, intending on sleep. By the time they had reached her bedroom however, their bodies had already entwined themselves again up to a point where revived lust had long managed to outmanoeuvre fatigue. When her head was greeted by the soft pillow, and her collarbone was greeted by his lips, sleep had been crossed off the menu.

She had woken up, locked in his embrace; peaceful and safe. In that moment it was difficult to know who or what to thank. Circumstance, fate, destiny, coincidence, or even chaos. Whatever had instigated the turn of events which had led him back to her, she was grateful towards it.

When he stood up and headed for the door, his naked shape collecting the trail of scattered clothes along the way, she couldn't help but smile. He was so beautiful to her. It was difficult to imagine any woman in the universe would think otherwise. Though the more rational parts of her brain realized he wasn't to be defined classically handsome as dictated by aesthetic criteria, she had always found him to be more desirable than any other man she had ever seen.

'I must tend to the Tardis,' he had whispered, ready to leave her there. 'Just give me a couple of hours. After that, I am at your service.'

'To do what?'

He sat had down beside her while fastening the buttons on his shirt.

'Anything you want,' he had purred before planting a soft kiss upon her lips. 'Anything.'

'You need a shower. And new clothes. We're going shopping. Human experience number one on our schedule.'

'Oooooh shopping, how lovely,' he had said sarcastically, baring his teeth before petting her hand and fleeing the room.

With that one sentence and awkward display of affection, he had switched from lover to alien in a mere few seconds. It was something that still managed to surprise her. Every time she allowed herself to forget who he was, one unearthly glare, one biting remark, or one weird clumsy movement would knock her sideways and force her to remember. Extra terrestrial.

After she had driven Sky to school, the hours passed like days. The girl had insisted on saying goodbye to the Doctor before leaving, and before the Timelord could protest, she had pulled him down by the hand and kissed him on the cheek, leaving him somewhat startled as the girl ran back towards the car and stepped in.

After she had arrived back home, the wait had been agony. Every half hour or so, between completing some of her own tasks, she would take a peek inside the garage and be faced with the picture of the Doctor working patiently, often dotting things down in the journal which had also been delivered in the crates.

The fourth time she did so however, her eyes were faced with something she hadn't anticipated. As she stuck her head through the door, careful so as not to be seen, she gasped in horror as she saw the Doctor lying on his side, obviously hurt.

As she had run towards him he was already regaining consciousness, to her great relief.

'What happened?!' Sarah cried as she ran her fingers through his hair and aided him to his feet.

'Had my bell rung… it's all right, I'm fine.'

'Are you?,' she asked while checking him for cuts or bruises.

He nodded and grinned.

'Not funny,' she thought. 'Again. Just not amusing.'

'She threw me out. I wonder what that's all about.'

Sarah crossed her arms and raised a suspicious eyebrow.

'Threw you out?'

Again, he nodded and grinned.

'I walked in for the first time and everything appeared to be in order. Same Tardis. But as soon as I laid a finger on the controls, the intruder alert went crackers.'

'She doesn't recognize you?'

'Oh, I think she does. I think that may be part of the problem.'

'What, you mean she's mad at you?'

He shook his head and ran his tongue across his teeth.

'Well, could be but… she said I was already in there. You see the Tardis being a time machine has to take precautions against any of the passengers running into themselves. If I were to accidentally land in the same place at the same time as my former or future self, the Tardis won't allow that time double to pilot her… should he mistake my Tardis for his.'

'She can tell the difference between the you of today and the you of next week?'

'Absolutely. She can with you as well. With everyone. Our atoms are in a constant state of flux, Sarah; and the Tardis is in a constant state of saving and recognizing that information. Comes in handy for all sorts, not just rejecting doubles. If she wishes to do so, she can project an interface of you from any given moment you once spent in there.'

'That's slightly… disturbing,' Sarah whispered. 'So why does she think you are still in there?'

'Because to her, I am. As soon we landed in the Global Biota Repository, the Tardis was attacked by the Krynoid. I assume she attempted to save me in her databanks so that in case I would have been trapped in there, my then current self would also be saved in her consciousness.'

'The consciousness which was then transmitted into that little device I tried to open.'

He smiled proudly.

'Very good.'

'But what good would that have done? I mean you…'

'I would have been dead you mean?'

She nodded solemnly.

'It's a measure of last resort, Sarah. One that I can't divulge the possibilities of, I'm afraid.'

'Why not?' she asked, disappointed.

He sighed and gazed at his feet.

'Humans would consider it to be, oh… unethical,' he had said, somewhat mockingly. 'After that of course, they would steal the knowledge, copy the technology, and start doing it themselves left right and center just to make a few billions.'

She couldn't help but snort at that remark. Yet the sad thing was that he was probably giving a fairly accurate description of humanity… or at least the more powerful and corrupt amongst them.

'When she restored herself here inside of your garage, Sarah, she did so based on the last saving point… like any computer might. That last saving point included me.'

'How can you make her realize there is no other corporeal you in there?' She asked.

He groaned loudly and stretched his arms.

'We'll see. Don't worry… just a minor glitch, I'll straighten it out soon.'

He had smiled and taken her hands before touching her nose with his.

'For the time being, Miss. Smith, I am yours as promised.'

At that moment, the day had only just begun.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

As Sarah closed in on the Doctor's limp form; careful so as not to lose her balance on the slippery surface, she felt her hearbeat slow down. Perhaps it was the temperature, yes, the indescribable cold that seemed to not only slow down her already tired limbs, but her mind as well. Mostly it was the fear that when she would turn him onto his side, pat his cheeks for a reaction, and feel his pulse, there would be none.

She didn't dare speak, so she just kept on going. Nearer and nearer to her Doctor with every step.

She made her way through another aisle, she saw something on the corner of her eye. A dark unmoving blotch. As she turned to face it, she immediately realized.

'Karlsson,' she thought as a loud gasp got lodged in the back of her throat. He was lying on his stomach, his blood stained and all but frozen solid face turned towards her. The back of his head a bloody cracked mess. Yes, he had clearly been gunned down from behind, just as the Doctor had told her.

She turned her eyes back towards the Timelord, swallowing hard as she kept on going. No time to lose.

She crouched down in front of him, patting his back while rolling him onto his side. He was heavy. He had always been heavy. As her bare hands grazed the texture of his grey coat, her mind was flooded with memories. She smiled as she hovered above his scarf, suddenly wanting badly to smell it. Too cold. Not enough time.

As he turned onto his back, she was overwhelmed with happiness. It really was him. Her Doctor. Right there with her.

She patted his cheeks as the fire died beside them. As they grew surrounded by darkness, he still didn't respond. Soon the bombs would make it all academic anyway, she thought. There was too little time. Why didn't he wake up?

There, in the dark freezer of of a far from home facility, Sarah Jane Smith grew certain that she would –

'Sarah,' he muttered suddenly.

The Timelord's eyes snapped open violently, as if an invisible thunderbolt had revived him. He shot up without hesitation, only looking at her when he was fully standing. For a second, he looked into her eyes before scanning her features.

'Yes,' Sarah thought. 'I know. A few more wrinkles.'

He didn't allow her the time to speak as he grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her towards him, embracing her tightly, chuckling in her hair. It didn't exactly warm her up, as he too was frozen, even more so than usual, yet it filled her with extasy. Years of hoping… over.

'How did you get in here?' he demanded, his anger suddenly on full display.

As she shook her head, he look at her in confusion. Did he not understand it was so cold she could hardly speak?

'I locked the door but my screwdriver went dead after just a few minutes, it can't function in this temperature.'

'Neither can I,' Sarah breathed, ready to faint. 'I… I…'

'Here,' he whispered while he took of his scarf and wrapped it around her neck. 'Put this around you.'

'Thank you.'

Her knees gave way as soon as the cold air reached her lungs once more. She fell forward, into his chest. She never hit the ground. Instead, he scooped her up as if she were a feather, and carried her towards the exit as fast as he could.

'Sonic stick lip…' Sarah mumbled in his arms. 'Right pocket.'

'Hang in there, Sarah. Stay awake now, you hear? Sarah!'

As they reached the door, the Doctor placed her against the wall, patting her cheeks in order to keep her awake.

'I'm awake,' she moaned, obviously losing consciousness.

'We'll get you warmed up soon,' he said as he reached into her pocket. As he retrieved the sonic lipstick, he grinned at the gadget, which looked like a doll accessory in his big hands.

'Still working,' the Doctor said surprised as he pointed the device at the door. He glanced at the fire extinguisher and looked at Sarah.

'Clever girl.'

He opened the door, and peeked through the crack to observe the state of the greenery. The plants had once again calmed down.

'Sarah,' he said calmly. 'I need you to be alert now. Can you do that?'

'It's too late,' she replied with her eyes closed.

'Sarah, please. We have to leave. You and me, remember?'

She opened her eyes and looked at him. He really hadn't changed one bit. Unlike herself.

She nodded and hunched forward.

As the Doctor helped her to her feet, he looked into her eyes.

'Stay close to me,' he whispered, prompting a determined nod from his friend.

'You too,' she breathed.

He smiled and gently tapped her nose.

'That's a promise.'

He grabbed hold of the extinguisher and took her hand in his.

'Let's go.'

As they hurried across the bridge, Sarah tried to stop him.

'Doctor,' she urged. 'The Tardis. It's…'

'She'll work,' he snapped. 'She can still take us away from her, I know she can.'

'Doctor!' Sarah cried desperately, grabbing his sleeve. 'Look at her!'

He didn't look at his ship as he turned to face her.

'She's gone, Doctor,' Sarah said as she looked at what as left of the blue box, which wasn't a whole lot.

He pressed his eyes shut; tightly; as if he wanted to alter reality by way of sheer anger. Substitute the one at hand for another. He tunred his head in the tardis' direction and opened them. No reaction. He knew it was over.

'I'm getting you out of here,' he hissed coldly.

As he turned to face her again, she noticed his eyes settling on something over shoulder. For a split second, his eyes dilated, and then… in a way she couldn't explain, time seemed to fracture.

He pushed and pulled at her, causing her knees and hands to crash into the grid of the bridge simultaneously.

'Ah,' Sarah cried.

It wasn't like the movies. Time didn't slow down when she heard the gun go off. It was like everything happened at once, and all she could do was try to make sense of it.

As she glanced up at him from her knees, another shot resounded, and she was greeted by a small shower of drops hitting her face and chest.

She looked down at them. Red. Blood. Her heart stopped skipping and stopped entirely.

As the Doctor sagged to one knee, her jaw dropped in disbelief. Confusion. Anger. Most of all, heartbreaking disappointment.

On the other side of the bridge, and closing the space between them menacingly… a familiar face…

**Bannerman Road **

**Present**

She had driven them to the nearest mall in order to acquaint him with the most unpleasant shopping experience she could think of. Not nice of her, she knew very well. But then loving someone so quickly tilts towards wanting to tease them as well.

He had sat wide-eyed, tugging at his seat belt, gazing at everything around him. Confused to the core.

'What's the matter?' she had asked as they drove onto the parking lot. 'You look like you've never been to earth.'

'It's quite… erm… different,' he stammered.

'You mean not having Daleks or Zygons chase you during your odd visit? Just people going about their daily lives. Honking and pushing trolleys.'

'Don't know which of the two I find more terrifying,' he mumbled, prompting her to feel a stab of guilt.

As they wandered from shop to shop, a few things became clear very quickly.

Some shop girls were extremely fond of him; taking advantage of every opportunity to let the back of their hands graze his bum as they assisted him, or smile and flirt with him shamelessly whilst discussing colors and fabrics. Perhaps it would have bothered her slightly if it hadn't been for his reactions ranging from a loud and clear for the whole store to hear 'You're very good at flirting, madam!' to hopping around like a nervous toddler with his hands tied behind his back in an attempt to form a shield between his behind and any hands that may have potentially landed there.

In the end, any attempts made on their behalf as far as telling him what to buy were eventually disregarded as he had wandered into a dusty store at the far end of the building while she had been making a call, and had walked out again dressed as a late nineteenth century tweed and velvet tramp. A timelessly stylish and clean tramp mind.

It had been a relief to be honest. Seeing him in modern suits and jumpers had been a treat to the eye but it just wasn't him. In a span of a few minutes, he had managed to look entirely out of place in their current surroundings.

'You are so vain,' she teased. 'Lord forbid you should blend in with the natives.'

'I do blend in. This is me blending in.'

'Seventy years ago… perhaps.'

'Ah well, your species' propensity to mess with perfection isn't my fault… and I hardly think my wardrobe should suffer because of it.'

They had sat down on the terrace of a bistro to have lunch. A few minutes after ordering, she had made her way towards the bathroom, passing a few tables, one of which was occupied by a loud drunken couple; the female half of which had made herself at home by way of taking her shoes of and making other customers around her rather nervous. She was sweating too. As she shuddered internally and passed the bar, she had heard something on the television causing her to halt and retract her hand from the cold surface of bathroom door handle.

'This morning in Stockholm, hospitals were overrun by people suffering from sudden respiratory complications; the cause of which has yet to be determined. The list of deadly casualties is presumed to have passed the one hundred mark and growing rapidly. More facts regarding this unsettling news are to follow soon.'

Then, between the images of doctors, investigators, and frightened people, she saw the shape of a man. A young man wearing a bow tie, and a white coat… a white coat he had obviously stolen.

'Doctor,' she whispered at the television screen.

What was he doing in Sweden? Had Stockholm been invaded by the Yaxwinnik?

As she had shuffled back towards their table, her coffee and his tea had arrived.

'Do you need this sugar?' he had asked, already opening the packet.

She had shaken her head nervously, her mind still firmly attached to the images she had seen on the news.

As she looked at the trays in front of her, she saw four empty packets of sugar. Looking up, the Timelord was sipping his tea in between pulling faces of disgust.

'Too sweet?' she had asked.

'Too bitter.'

She had smiled and taken his hand hers. An attempt to forget what she had seen. If the older Doctor said he would handle the Yaxwinnik, she was convinced that he would.

As his younger self looked back at her dreamily, it worked. She forgot.

After having finished lunch they had sat enjoying the rare wonderful weather, talking about all sorts. From Gallifrey to her job to her children to food to the smells of spring. Before they had realized, two hours had passed, and she had allowed herself to feel as though, for now, she was one half of an average couple.

During their drive back towards Ealing, they had decided to pick up Sky from school, grab a blanket, and head for Windsor Great Park to make the most of the nice weather. Once there, they had enjoyed a lovely stroll before deciding to lie down by the Leptis Magna ruins with ice cream. The only moment of sadness was missing Luke.

As they had arrived back on Bannerman Road in the middle of the night after a late dinner, she had known how lucky she was; and when falling asleep in his arms after making love, she knew she would have rather had that day and died straight after, then to have lived without it. It had been such a simple day, and yet it had been perfect.

As her mind wandered back towards the present, she heard the Doctor's voice outside; mingling with other familiar ones.

'Oh no,' she muttered as she recognized Rani and Clyde's voices.

She hopped out of the bed, slipped into the first t-shirt she could find, and threw on her bathrobe. On her bare feet, she scattered down the staircase and headed for the driveway, hoping Clyde hadn't been able to pry loose certain details involving the past few days.

'What are you kids doing here?' she asked, attempting to sound casual while taking in the sight of the Doctor sitting on a crate, surrounded by two overly curious teenagers and her daughter.

'Oh, just talking,' Clyde replied in a tone of equally calculated casualness.

'Wondering why we weren't invited along yesterday,' Rani added.

'Family day out,' Sarah said, immediately realizing how that must have sounded to the ancient alien opposite her.

'Oh,' Rani replied suggestively. 'I see.'

'Sarah, perhaps you should put some shoes on,' the Timelord interjected.

'Yes, dear. Put some shoes on,' Clyde agreed, mimicking the Doctor's voice… and failing.

She stared blankly at the kids and shrugged.

'I'm fine. What are you talking about.'

'We were deciding where to take the Tardis for a test ride,' Sky informed her mother while pulling the Doctor's arm to one side for no apparent reason, gesticulating with it as if he were a doll of some kind.

'How about the great wall of China?' Rani suggested. 'I'd love to see that.'

'During the time of the Samurai!' Clyde added, clearly having made his mind up.

'That's a little risky, young lad,' the Doctor informed him. 'Especially considering they were from Japan.'

'Woodstock!' the teenager attempted, prompting the Doctor to once again shake his head.

'I can guarantee you that little hop was one over-hyped and uncomfortable mess for everyone involved.'

'Excuse me,' Sarah attempted.

'Especially the androids pretending to be Crosby, Stills, and Nash.'

'Doctor,' Sarah tried again.

'They short circuited after performing. Still, not as nasty as the Hendrix one… he melted.'

'Are you saying Jimi Hendrix was an android?'

'No, Clyde, don't be daft. The real rockstars had been knocked out cold by their android doubles in a tent. Still, no one seemed to notice the difference and it had a happy ending.'

'Excuse me!' Sarah shouted.

'I don't remember granting any of you permission to go anywhere.'

'That's what I told them,' the Doctor urged.

'Besides, the Tardis is too knackered to go anywhere.'

'I fixed her.'

Sarah's heart stopped. No, scratch that. It broke.

'You did?' she whispered.

'Ready to launch,' Clyde smiled.

'What if we taker her for a tiny spin? Please, mom.'

Sarah folded her arms and pressed her lips together.

'Is it safe?' she asked, gazing into the Timelord's eyes, begging for the truth.

He nodded.

'It's perfectly fine. But it's your decision. And you kids will obey, no matter what.'

'Please, mom,' Sky nagged, pouting her lips and clearly attempting to win an Oscar for her performance.

'This could be the only chance we'll ever have, Sarah Jane,' Rani added.

For a moment, everything went quiet while Sarah deliberated the matter in her head.

'You're keeping them in England,' she then ordered the Doctor. 'And on today's exact date.'

'We might as well take a taxi!' Clyde protested.

'Final offer,' Sarah said.

'Great!' Rani cried. 'Where shall we go?'

'Windsor Great Park!' Sky suggested.

'You were there yesterday, you goose.'

As the kids argued amongst themselves where to go, Sarah turned around and headed for the house.

Within a matter of seconds however, the Doctor was beside her, grabbing her hand as they walked through the door and headed for the sitting room.

'Come here,' he whispered as he sat down and urged her to join him. As she did so, he immediately kissed her.

'You should join us,' he whispered as he nuzzled her neck.

'Certainly not. If I join you, you'll have no reason to take us back home any time soon. I know you… you'll just get lost again and again and again, on purpose, hoping I won't get fed up with wandering around the stars.'

He closed his eyes, obviously knowing her words contained almost nothing but the truth.

'Did you then?'

'What do you mean?' she asked while running her fingers through his hair.

'Were you fed up when you left me?'

She looked at him, confused at first.

'I don't know. I probably needed a short break. But if I had known then you wouldn't be coming back for forty years, I wouldn't even have considered leaving.'

'I did come back.'

'Yes, I know.'

'The Tardis she…'

'I know, Doctor.'

She rested her head upon his.

'You were the only one I wanted to share my life with. It's just that sometimes we need peace and quiet. A warm bed in a brick house. I needed to be sure I could still come back. Be part of my own planet's history, if only for a few days here and there.'

He nodded.

'But I can't do that anymore. Sky and Luke, they come first now. And I would never forgive myself if something happened to them out there.'

'I would never allow that to happen,' he said blankly, his eyes growing dark with determination, making clear to her he was willing to lay down his own life for her and either of her children if that's what it came down to.

She embraced him tightly.

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I can't.'

At that moment, Sky, Clyde, and Rani rushed into the house followed by K9, and headed straight towards them.

As Sky and Clyde sat down on the opposite couch, Rani unfolded a map of England on the coffee table.

'What's all this?' Sarah asked as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek.

'We can't decide where to go,' Sky informed her mother.

'That's because you refuse to go anywhere Clyde and I point out on the map.'

'Suggestion,' K9 proposed in his distinctive tone.

'Allow impartial hand to decide. Perhaps Master or mistress can oblige.'

'That's a good idea,' Rani agreed.

'The Doctor should decide, he's the pilot,' Sarah suggested while standing up. 'Breakfast, anyone?'

'What do we say I close my eyes and allow a certain element of randomness to decide?'

As the three youngsters nodded in agreement, the Doctor stood up and allowed his index finger to hover above the map in circles.

He closed his eyes, and dropped his finger.

Inside the kitchen, Sarah rested her head upon the fridge and sighed, already knowing the destination.

**The Global Biota Repository**

**Days Earlier**

'Marianne,' Sarah breathed.

The blonde woman didn't reply as she approached, pointing the gun at the Timelord.

He looked at her then, trembling in pain; his eyes asking whether she was okay.

Without regard for the oncoming threat, Sarah crawled towards him. She swallowed hard as she took note of the damage. His upper chest and shoulder were a mess. Blood seeping onto the grid below and onto the plants beneath them.

'Yet another admirable display of heroism,' the woman deadpanned as she halted a few feet in front of them. 'Truly touching.'

'You're going to be okay,' Sarah breathed tremulously, her eyes filling with tears as the Doctor's settled upon some far away invisible place. 'Stay with me.'

Sarah glared at Marianne.

'Who are you? We have to go or we're all dead. What happened to Edison?'

The blonde woman chuckled. She sounded so much different than before.

'Let's see,' she sneered. 'Which one of those would you like me to answer first?'

She put the gun to the Doctor's head. He was close to losing consciousness.

'Get away from him,' Marianne ordered, prompting Sarah to shake her head.

'Now… or this gun will go off in his face.'

'I swear, Marianne, if you hurt him.'

The blonde woman hit the Timelord in the face with the gun and grinned.

'Hurt him? Miss, Smith, I have no intention on hurting him. I intend to kill both of you.'

'The bombs -,' Sarah attempted.

'You really believe I would allow this entire operation to be destroyed by a journalist from Ealing?' Marianne interrupted. 'That timer never began its countdown, because I never entered that code. My apologies if it caused you a certain amount of stress. As for that winged Judas, who knows. I left him.'

As Sarah crawled backwards and away from the Doctor, she caught a glimpse of the plants beneath them. The gunshots and the Doctor's blood had revived their interest in what was going on above them. Slowly but surely, they began extending upwards again.'

'You have no idea how long it took for us,' Marianne said. 'Years to collect those pods and set this up. Then Karlsson insisted on finding out what they were and nearly blew our cover.'

She grinned once more.

'Nearly.'

'You shot him,' Sarah said as she watched the Doctor regain some temporary strength.

'He didn't leave me with a lot of alternatives.'

'Who are you?' The Doctor asked in between moans. 'Are you human?'

'You insult me, Timelord. Perhaps the question is whether you are? More importantly, how is it that you are alive while the rest of your kind -'

The blonde woman was interrupted by her own thoughts.

'Of course,' she cried victoriously. 'The last of the Ti-'

'Shut up!' Sarah shouted.

Marianne chuckled.

'I see,' she whispered before glaring at the Doctor. 'He doesn't know. Don't worry, Miss Smith. I'll leave him with the opportunity to be surprised when that infamous hour occurs and echoes throughout the entire universe.'

Then, as the Krynoid were right below them, the Doctor's eyes closed. His head falling upon the grid of the bridge with a violent thump.

'Doctor!' Sarah cried.

'One more question,' Marianne deadpanned. 'Does humanity not kill species that roam this planet beside them every single day? Does humanity not kill its own? Does humanity not poison this planet?'

Sarah nodded.

'Then why should we not follow that example and wipe this world clean from the virus that infests it?'

Then, without warning, The blonde woman opened her mouth. Within a mere few seconds, something lunged from her throat and headed towards Sarah's at the speed of sound. Before the journalist could react, let alone duck, the slippery suckers on the tentacle began hissing and squeezing the oxygen from her lungs. While doing so, Marianne's eyes grew larger and larger. As if Sarah's lungs were functioning as a pump and blowing oxygen into Marianne's eyeballs.'

She tried to pull them off as she felt her entire body weaken, and for some odd reason, she tried to remember whether she had ever been strangled before. She couldn't. She couldn't form a coherent thought as she wriggled around like a fly trapped in a web.

She glanced at the Doctor's lifeless body; his foot being pulled towards the side of the bridge by the thick mutated ivy which had clasped itself around his ankle.

'This can't be it,' Sarah thought as her eyes involuntarily rolled back. 'Not here.'

She hunched her back, as if that would somehow unlock a backup unit of air stocked somewhere in her body. No such luck.

As the Krynoid had surrounded the bridge, and the killer opposite her had sucked every last atom of oxygen from her lungs, Sarah Jane Smith drifted away.

In between flashes of light and a series of random memories, she heard sounds. Sounds that pulled her from the darkness, if only for several brief moments.

She heard screams. More gunshots. She saw the Krynoid receding. She saw Mark's mutated body grapple with Marianne's. She saw darkness and heard one violent scream… then, silence again. More dreams. As her eyes flickered open, she immediately glanced down. There, in the jungle beneath her, lay two bodies. Dead or unconscious, she did not know. Marianne, or whoever she was, and Mark, or whatever was left of him.

Had Mark pulled Marianne down with him? Her heart broke as she considered him being innocent. Perhaps they were working together… Perhaps… she did not know. She couldn't think. Nor could she move.

A few feet in front of her the Doctor was till unconscious. Blood dripping from his side, neck, and hands. In the distance, she heard the Tardis, wheezing. Crying almost. As i fit wanted desperately to dematerialize out of this hellhole, yet couldn't. She turned to watch, immediately noticing the yellowish hue emanating from what was left of the blue box. Her heart broke.

'Look at you,' she whimpered as a tear rolled down her cheek.

'Doc…,' she attempted, but to no avail. Inside she was screaming. Inside, she was banging against the walls of her mind, urging her body to listen. Shouting at her legs to move and help both her friend and his wonderful ship. No response. All she could do was lie there and wait for certain death.

As her vision dimmed, she was sure she heard the sound of the Tardis, a Tardis, materializing nearby.

How?

'My dear girl,' an all too familiar voice spoke clearly. A voice belonging to neither the curly haired or the bowtie donning Doctor…

The last thing she experienced was velvet grazing against her cheek, followed by a soft hand.

'Doctor,' she muttered.

'Sarah Jane Smith,' the familiar voice reassured her. 'I'm here to take you home.'

**Bannerman Road**

**Present**

'You promised!' Sky cried as the Doctor threw on his purple coat to complete his characteristic traveling look.

'I didn't promise anything,' Sarah replied.

'Well, yeah… you kinda did, Sarah Jane,' Rani said. 'You told us it was okay if we stayed in the country and Hyde Park is in England as far as I know, so what gives?'

She knew she couldn't tell them the truth. Couldn't tell them that he wouldn't be back.

'Hyde Park,' Sarah whispered in a barely audible tone. Her eyes wandering off as her mind went over what the older Doctor had told her. Time to let him go.

She was grateful for the ability to suppress the tears, and looked at him. He too was staring at her with great confusion, just like the kids were. Then, suddenly, he turned his attention towards Sky, and kneeled in front of her. She was hardly a little child, but he was so large that she might as well have been.

'Sky,' he began as soon as his eye line reached hers.

'What do you say if the three of you come along with me next time? As soon as I've made sure everything is in order. After all, I wouldn't want to get any of you hurt. Or lost…'

'But you said –'

'I know,' The Doctor interrupted. 'But there are always thing I can't anticipate. The Tardis has a mind of her own, and taking along three passengers she doesn't recognize might be a bit too much for her right now.'

Sarah's throat was suffering greatly from having to fight back the emotions begging for release. She wanted to weep. Wanted to beg him not to leave, yet she knew she couldn't. He belonged out there, and she and the kids belonged here. Those were the facts.

'Sky, why don't we go in the house for a moment,' Rani suggested. 'Let your mother and the Doctor discuss this in private.'

Sarah smiled at Rani, who gave her knowing look.

'Than you,' she mouthed.

'Come on, Clyde,' Rani urged while tugging his sweater and guiding him out of the garage.

'You're leaving, aren't you?' Sky asked.

'Yes he is, Darling,' Sarah replied as she approached them, prompting Sky to press her lips together tightly, ready to burst into tears.

'Why?'

'Because he doesn't belong here, sweetheart. Neither in this house or in this time. He broke the rules to save my life. So that I could be with you and Luke for many many years to come.'

'Whose rules?' Sky demanded in between sobs. 'I hate those rules.'

The Doctor looks down at the floor and nodded in agreement.

'So do I,' he mumbled. 'But some rules exist to keep everyone safe, Sky. And this is one of those rules.'

The girl looked down and covered her eyes with her forearms in sorrow, her body shaking as she cried.

'Come here,' the Timelord said as he scooped the girl up from her feet and comforted her.

'I Have this feeling that I'll be around, you know,' he said as he looked at Sarah knowingly. 'Albeit a different and far too skinny exterior.'

'Bugger,' she thought between tears. 'He knows.'

'Not you,' Sky complained, thereby admitting to having seen another version. 'He's not you.'

'Oh, he's me,' The Doctor assured her. 'And he loves you. Because I love you.'

He put her down again and tapped her gently on the nose.

'So the next time you see me, no matter how silly I look or act… you'll know that I remember you. That I remember what I'm telling you right now.'

He smiled and embraced her tightly. 'Silly goose,' he said before kissing her on the forehead.

'You look silly now,' Sky replied blankly, prompting a deep chuckle from the Timelord.

'Now let me say goodbye to your mother.'

The girl nodded and headed towards the door.

'Sky,' the Doctor called after her.

She turned around, obviously comforted by his words.

'Promise one thing… just one thing.'

The girl smiled and nodded.

'Go ahead and be silly,' he said softly.

She waved and left the garage, soon calling after Rani in the distance.

Sarah approached him and took his hands in hers.

'You do that well,' she whispered.

'She's a good teacher.'

Sarah smiled and kissed his hand.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean that your daughter's heart was open to me just like yours has always been.'

'Don't even think about about stealing my daughter in ten years time, sir.'

'Not even for one trip? You would deny her everything you saw?'

'Yes!' Sarah replied quickly. 'I hate Daleks and Cybermen as much as the next girl, but my daughter would be too much punishment even for them.'

He grinned and caressed her cheeks.

'I wish…'

'It's okay,' she said. 'You already told me… and I understand.'

As he placed his lips onto hers, everything was alright. In that moment, she knew that she had been handed a small miracle free of charge.

How good that feels… Sarah thought.

The feeling of happiness didn't last long as she imagined what was about to happen. He would walk through those blue doors and she would never see him again. This was it.

'You better go,' Sarah said. 'Before I tie to you to a chair and keep you here.'

He nodded in silence.

'I love you, Sarah Jane Smith.'

He planted another kiss upon her lips and turned around. Just like that. Before she could say anything, the doors behind him had shut.

She bit her lower lip to forget the agony within. Once again, he had kissed her as the man who loved her. Once his back had been turned however, he had been the alien. That small part of him she would never reach, no matter how many kisses they shared.'

As the Tardis dematerialized in front of her, she stood and gazed at the floor. Motionless like a statue.

He was gone.


End file.
